


introduce me to a good person

by hyuckheis (johnyongs)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Blind Date, Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Touch-Starved, Yukhei is a BIG NERD and Hyuck thinks that's sexy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:28:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24714613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnyongs/pseuds/hyuckheis
Summary: gravity is described as the process of any object with mass or energy being brought together. yukhei thanks gravity every day for bringing him to donghyuck.[originally titled "sun & moon"]
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 139
Kudos: 472





	1. part 1: donghyuck

**Author's Note:**

> thank u to dai and lisa for always hyping me up TT and thank you to lisa for the sandwich bit that comes later. i hope everyone is taking care of themselves physically and mentally during this time!

_ 7th Sense Brewing Co. _

Donghyuck stares up at the neon sign, glowing blue against a brick face. People dodge him on the sidewalk, throwing him dirty looks as he obstructs the foot traffic of a Friday night in downtown Houston. The air had been humid earlier, the warm breeze carrying the promise of summer heat. But at this time of night, with the sun long set below the horizon, the wind carries a chill. Donghyuck is glad he grabbed a jacket before he left, and he tugs at the denim sleeves now, nervous and fidgety. 

“Fuck,” Donghyuck mutters, glancing up again at the sign. “What the hell am I doing?” From the clear glass doors, he can see that the pub is fairly packed. His social anxiety rears its ugly head, churning violently with the terror already making a home in his stomach. 

He digs his phone out of his pocket and stares at the last text from Renjun for what feels like the millionth time. It’s entirely possible that he got the wrong date, the wrong time, the wrong location. He should just go home and avoid all this trouble.  Ben and Jerry’s wouldn’t ever give him this much stress. 

**renjun motherfucking dickwad huang:** 7th sense brewing co !! in dth. 8 pm. 

**renjun motherfucking dickwad huang:** he said he’s wearing a blue button down. 

**renjun motherfucking dickwad huang:** dont fucking be late or i swear to god ill kill u

**renjun motherfucking dickwad huang:** if u stand him up ur gonna wish i killed u 

**renjun motherfucking dickwad huang:** tell me how it goes <3333333

And so, with the fear of God and Renjun Huang in his bones, Donghyuck is here, at 8:02 PM, in front of the 7th Sense Brewing Co. About to go on a blind date. Who even goes on a blind date in this day and age?

Him, apparently. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Donghyuck pockets his phone to wipe his damp palms on his jeans. He feels like an idiot. He  _ is _ an idiot. This is just absolutely the worst idea in the whole fucking world. If Renjun set him up with some idiot as a joke, Donghyuck is going to beat the shit out of him with their vacuum cleaner. 

Making a small, pained noise at the back of his throat, Donghyuck reaches out and yanks the door open. Immediately, he’s hit with a gust of cool air and the sounds of classic rock blasting through speakers. 

“Hi, how many?” Donghyuck barely registers the hostess at the stand, scanning the crowd desperately for a blue button-down. 

“Huh?” Donghyuck glances at the hostess. “Hi, sorry. Uhm. I’m supposed to be meeting somebody? He’s wearing a blue shirt. Buttons. The shirt has buttons.” He’s an idiot. There are probably at least five people here wearing that exact outfit. Why the hell did he ask? 

With an amused twitch of the lips, the hostess points to a table in the back. “He’s over that way. Good luck,” she says, like Donghyuck will definitely need it. 

“Thanks.” With what he hopes is a normal-not-deranged smile, Donghyuck weaves his way past the gleaming bar and the cluster of tables, his heart thumping violently against his ribs with every step. He’s so nervous he can barely feel his legs. 

He hesitates when he sees the back of a blue shirt, and god, he has nice shoulders. If the face is as nice as the back, Donghyuck may just cry. Or vomit. Or both. 

“Uhm,” Donghyuck says, approaching the table. The man looks up from his phone, and holy shit.  _ Holy shit. _ What an unfairly sexy face. “Yukhei?” 

The man blinks at him owlishly. “Donghyuck?” 

The way his name sounds on this guy’s tongue is ridiculous. Even his voice is sexy. Gorgeous inky hair, eyes so big they seem to take over his face, skin the color of honey, sharp cheekbones, and a deep voice to go with it? There’s also something almost  _ familiar _ about him, but Donghyuck brushes that thought away. He’s always thought that people like this shouldn’t exist, since they’re a danger to society.

Yukhei waves a hand in front of his face, eyebrows (thick, delicious eyebrows) furrowed. “Donghyuck?” It occurs to him, right then, that he’d been staring at this guy, this  _ stranger, _ in complete silence, like a total fucking weirdo. Strike one. 

“Sorry, hi, yeah that’s me.” Desperate for something to do, Donghyuck slides into the elevated seat across from Yukhei with only a minor struggle. “Sorry I’m late, parking was insane.” He struggles for something else to say, and notices the half-empty glass of water in front of Yukhei. “Have you been waiting long?” 

“Oh, no, you’re right on time.” Yukhei waves enormous hands in front of him frantically, and his palms are so wide Donghyuck dies a little inside. “I’m just early. It’s like a thing. Early is on time, on time is late, that sort of--” Then he blinks, eyes widening in horror at the implication. “Not that you’re late. I just mean for me. It’s fine. You’re fine.” He grabs his water and takes a deep gulp, and it occurs to Donghyuck that they both might be completely out of their depth. While it baffles him how someone as unfairly attractive as Yukhei could be nervous, it does a lot to untangle the knots in his stomach. 

“Did you order anything to drink yet?” Donghyuck plucks up the alcohol list from where it had been set on the table between them. 

Shoulders sagging with relief at the topic change, Yukhei shakes his head. “Ah, no. I wanted to wait for you.” 

Donghyuck smiles. “Thanks.” Because it gives him a moment of respite, he reads down the menu carefully. “I wonder what’s good here.”

“A lot of their drafts are good, it, uhm, depends on what you’re looking for.” 

Donghyuck glances at Yukhei from over the menu. “You’ve been here before?” 

Yukhei nods. “It’s a favorite of mine.” The ensuing smile is slow and shy. “I figured a familiar environment might make me not panic as much.” 

Donghyuck bites back a grin. “Did it work?” 

Yukhei shakes his head definitively, takes another sip of his water. “Nope.” 

At that, Donghyuck snorts. “I’m guessing you don’t do this blind dating thing often.” 

“Ah, no. Not really.” 

Donghyuck narrows his eyes, unable to stop the words from coming out. “I don’t mean to be forward, but you’re seriously hot, so why would you even need to do this?” 

Yukhei laughs nervously, a ridiculous, high-pitched sound that’s accompanied by a blush and a tug at his ear. “Thank you-- uhm. I just-- My work kept me crazy busy until now, and dating apps are terrifying. You never know who people really are. And most of them aren’t really looking for a relationship.” He peers at Donghyuck through long eyelashes. “I trust Renjun’s judgment, though.” 

“Oh, god, no. Don’t do that.” Donghyuck laughs, waving his hands in front of him. “I’m a terror. You’ll see. I’m not convinced he didn’t arrange this as a prank.” At Yukhei’s affronted look, Donghyuck grins. “Do you know him well? He mentioned you guys were related.” 

“Well, distantly. Like a second cousins once-removed type of thing. But he helped me out a lot when I first moved here. Like I said, work’s kept me busy, so I haven’t been able to spend time with him.” He purses his lips with a determined look. “I want to change that, though.” 

“And that’s why you want to date?” 

“Yep. I should probably tell you that--”

“I don’t mean to interrupt you,” Donghyuck says suddenly, grabbing at Yukhei’s wrist in a move that shocks even himself. His skin is warm and smooth. “But the waitress is heading this way. I don’t want to piss her off. What should I have to drink?” 

Yukhei tilts his head in a way that reminds Donghyuck of a puppy. “It depends on what you’re gonna have for dinner.” 

Donghyuck thinks for a moment. “Burger. I’m hungry.” 

“All of their ales are pretty stellar.” 

Donghyuck skims the list. “Can’t go wrong with an Irish red, right?” 

Yukhei’s grin comes quick. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” 

Something flutters in Donghyuck’s stomach, makes his skin tingle. It’s that moment of understanding, of connection, that has a silly, irrational spark of hope blooming in his chest. He reminds himself that the night is young yet, that this is a little too good to be true, and squashes it like a bug. 

“So,” Donghyucks says, when their orders are squared away. He rests his chin in his palm.“You were saying?” 

Yukhei frowns, trying to remember, and Donghyuck takes the distraction to admire him. Despite the very raw masculine features, there’s something very soft and disarming about Yukhei. Maybe it’s neatly combed hair, or the perfectly pressed dress shirt, or the bulky, geeky watch on his wrist. Donghyuck could have  _ sworn _ he’d seen him before, but he can’t, for the life of him, tell where.

“I honestly don’t know,” Yukhei says with a shrug. “Anyways, I’m curious. Why did  _ you _ agree to this blind date? I mean, you’re, uh--” He clears his throat, fiddling with the collar of his neatly-pressed shirt. “You’re really beautiful.”

Maybe it’s the obvious shyness, or the earnest look in Yukhei’s eyes, but everything in Donghyuck warms, and he feels his own cheeks heat up. “That’s nice of you to say. I just… I don’t know. I guess I’ve been feeling really lonely lately. Lonely enough to agree to something like this, but…” He finds himself squirming in his seat. “I guess I’m glad I did.” To dispel the odd, vulnerable feeling, he continues, “But the night is still young. The jury’s still out on whether you’re an axe murderer or not.”

Yukhei laughs that wild hyena laugh again, and has Donghyuck grinning back. Yukhei’s two front teeth are slightly crooked, and it just adds yet another endearing layer to the puzzle. Yukhei has the face of a model, but the air of someone who used to have their head dunked in a toilet as a kid. Something niggles at the back of Donghyuck’s mind, like deja vu. Because he can’t shake off the feeling, he asks, “Have we ever met before?” 

Yukhei purses his lips, considering, before shaking his head. “I think I would have remembered if we had.” 

Donghyuck swallows down a laugh and narrows his eyes. “Are you flirting with me?” 

“We’re on a date, aren’t we? I may be new to this but I figure you’re allowed to flirt.” He peers curiously with those ridiculously big eyes, lips twitching. “Am I doing it right?” 

Donghyuck bites back a pleased smile. Before he can say anything else, the waitress comes back with their drinks, and assures them their food will be out shortly. “Well,” he says, picking up his glass. “To rookie flirting.” 

“To hopefully not being an axe murderer,” Yukhei says, tapping their glasses together. He waits with interest as Donghyuck takes a sip. 

“It’s good,” Donghyuck says. “All my friends hate beer, so I don’t get to do this often enough.” 

Yukhei makes an offended sound. “Clearly they’ve never had anything good on tap.” 

“That’s what I keep saying. They have one lukewarm can of Coors Lite and they suddenly think they know everything.” 

Yukhei leans back in his chair, shaking his head. “Finding good breweries is honestly one of my favorite things. I haven’t had a lot of time to explore the area, though.” He wrinkles his nose cutely. “It’s not that appealing to go alone.” 

“We can be pub buddies,” Donghyuck says, before his higher cognitive functions can shut him up. With a wince, he rubs his eyes. “Sorry, that was forward. We don’t even know each other.” 

“No, no, oh my god. That’d be really fun.” Yukhei pats Donghyuck’s arm reassuringly. “If we can both prove we’re not axe murderers maybe we can find somewhere to go for a second date.” 

“I’m so glad neither of us has trust issues,” Donghyuck says sarcastically, and enjoys Yukhei’s laugh. He takes a sip of his ale and savors the carbonation and the smooth malt aftertaste on his tongue. “So how long have you been in Houston?” 

Mirroring Donghyuck, Yukhei takes a sip of his own beer. “Just a little over four years now. Before that I was in San Diego, then Massachusetts. I was raised in San Jose, though. My parents and I moved there from Hong Kong when I was four.” 

“Jeez, you’ve been all over the place. My parents immigrated to Rhode Island from South Korea. I was born right outside of Providence.” 

Yukhei shoots Donghyuck a teasing smile. “What even is  _ in _ Rhode Island?” 

“Okay, first of all, rude. Second of all,” he points at himself, “there’s me.” 

Yukhei grins over the rim of his glass. “Of course, of course.” 

“I basically manifested every immigrant parent's fear and decided to move here for art school. So now here I am, a poor, starving artist, swimming in an ocean of debt.” 

“Maybe you should have become a poet instead.” 

That drags a bubble of laughter out of Donghyuck. It throws him off guard. Being a cynical sort of person, he’s not easy to entertain, but something about Yukhei puts him at ease. Noticing that Yukhei is more than halfway done with his beer, Donghyuck takes a sip of his own to catch up. “So you moved here for work? What do you do?” 

“Oh. Uhm. I’m an astronaut.” 

The ill-timed sip of beer goes directly down Donghyuck’s windpipe. He coughs violently, eyes swimming, and Yukhei frantically hands him a napkin. “Oh my god, are you okay?”

“I’m--” Donghyuck wheezes, thumping at his chest. He’s drawn the attention of several bar patrons, and he knows his face is as red as a tomato. “Just give me a--” He coughs again and wonders if it’s possible to actually die from mortification. 

“You’re-- you’re an  _ astronaut? _ ” Donghyuck asks, once he’s gotten enough air back into his lungs. His eyes sting from unshed tears. “Like, the kind of astronaut that goes to space?” 

Yukhei smiles helplessly. “Is there any other kind?” 

“I don’t fucking know!” As Donghyuck’s head stops spinning, something in his brain clicks. “Wait a minute. You’re--” He points accusingly at Yukhei, who widens his eyes in alarm. “You’re  _ Astronaut Lucas! _ ” 

“Uhm. Yes.” 

“You said your name was Yukhei.” 

“It is,” Yukhei says carefully. “Lucas is my English name. I go by that professionally.” 

“Professionally…” Donghyuck murmurs in disbelief, runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “I watched the rocket launch last year. I mean, the whole world did. You’re the youngest astronaut to ever go to space.” 

Yukhei tugs on his ear again, squirming in his seat. “Yeah.” 

Donghyuck’s eyes narrow. “When you said you were busy with work, it’s because you were up in fucking space.” 

“I mean, that was only for six months, I was training before--”

“Irrelevant!”

“What do you want from me? It’s not like I go around yelling about it wherever I go.”

That takes the wind out of Donghyuck’s sail. He slouches in his seat, lips pressed into a thin line. “I’m just saying… You could have given a guy a little warning.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Next time I go on a date I’ll show up in my flight suit.”

That makes Donghyuck’s lips twitch. He tucks them between his teeth, but it’s useless against the embarrassed giggles that work their way up his throat. He slaps a hand over his mouth to muffle the laughter, and finds himself relieved when Yukhei just grins back. 

“I’m sorry. I’m just in shock. What the hell are you doing here with me? You’re a celebrity--”

“No way, I’m not,” Yukhei insists, eyes wide with alarm. 

Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “Yeah right. What are you doing here on a date with me when you could be dating, like, I don’t know, an aerospace engineer or something? Someone with a fancy PhD and a title no one can pronounce?” 

Yukhei narrows his eyes. “And that’s better than dating an artist?” 

“Yukhei, I host Paint Night two times a week at The Cheesecake Factory.” 

Before Yukhei can reply, their waitress comes back with their burgers and sides. Despite the mouthwatering aroma, Donghyuck has lost his appetite completely.

“Okay, first of all, my career doesn’t make me better than anybody else. Second of all, I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by people who are just like me, and I want to get to know people who are different. Third of all, everyone I know is, like, at least a decade older than me, so dating a colleague would feel weird. And if you’re going to make an issue out of this, you’re really going to piss me off, Donghyuck.” 

Donghyuck dips a french fry sullenly into ketchup. “Sorry.” Strike two.

“It’s okay.” Yukhei smiles gently, and Donghyuck is too embarrassed to address how hot he found Yukhei when he was irritated. The eyebrows are doing something to his sanity. “Eat your food, Donghyuck.” 

“Yeah.” He makes no motion to do so, but watches Yukhei take a bite of his burger. “I do have a question though.” When Yukhei makes a humming noise, he blurts, “How do you poop in space?” 

Yukhei stops chewing, then swallows the bite. “Do you really want to have this conversation right now? While we’re eating?” 

“It’s life or death. I really need to know.” 

Yukhei sets his burger down and wipes his fingers with a napkin with deliberate slowness. “How about this? You can ask me about anything that isn’t poop-related while we’re eating, and maybe I’ll answer that question at the end.” 

Placated, Donghyuck picks up his burger. “Fair enough. Favorite movie?” For a moment, Yukhei looks thrown. Donghyuck grins. “Oh, you thought I was going to ask you about space. I’m unpredictable, Astronaut Lucas. I’m just full of surprises.”

“Okay, fine.” Yukhei narrows his eyes. “My top two would probably be… Fast and Furious 5 and Princess Bride.”

“Inconceivable!” Donghyuck crows through a mouthful of food. 

Yukhei beams at him. “You know it? It’s so old, I don’t expect anyone to know what I’m talking about anymore.”

“Are you kidding me?” Donghyuck says, swallowing his bite. “It’s one of the best movies of all time. Easily in my top five.” 

“What’s your number one, then?” 

“Mamma Mia,” Donghyuck says without hesitation and swipes a sweet potato tater tot from Yukhei’s plate. 

“The ABBA movie?” 

“The very one. It’s got drama and humor and the music slaps. You’ve never seen it?” 

“Can’t say that I have.” 

Donghyuck clicks his tongue in disappointment. “Your cinematic education is severely lacking, young padawan. Correct it we must.” 

Yukhei snorts and steals a fry in retaliation and pops it into his mouth. “Okay, Yoda.” 

“What made you want to become an astronaut?” Donghyuck asks. 

Taking the sudden segue in stride, Yukhei shrugs. “You know how when you’re a kid, people ask you what you want to be, and most everyone says astronaut? That was me, except that it stuck. And growing up I was interested in a lot of different things, and being an astronaut is one of the only jobs where being a jack of all trade is actually an asset.” 

Donghyuck nods solemnly. “When I was growing up, I wanted to be a flight attendant.” 

Yukhei chokes on a laugh. “That’s a very noble aspiration. What shattered your dream?” 

“Nothing much. When I was in high school I made a Twitter and posted NSFW Yuri on Ice fanart-- Don’t laugh!” Donghyuck flushes and Yukhei clutches his stomach and keels over. “I was young and horny and it turned out I was semi-good at it. So I decided to take the risk and go to art school. And so, my childhood dream was ruined.” 

“Do you have to go to art school to be an artist?” Despite the fact that he’s wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye, Donghyuck knows Yukhei is asking the question seriously. 

“Not really. Half the time I regret it, honestly. I think I was just scared at the thought of not going to college, for my parents’ sake.” After he’s said it, Donghyuck realizes he hasn’t said this to anyone before, not even to his closest friends. “I’m glad for the technical training and the foundation, I guess. But I’m up to my ears in student debt and I’m not sure that I’m getting more or less work with the degree.” 

Yukhei hums thoughtfully. “I’ve never considered that, to be honest. In my line of work, the degrees mean everything. You can’t do anything without them. It’s really interesting how different careers have different qualifications.” 

“I mean, practicing art is something you can do on your own. You can’t, like, sit in your room and learn how to be an astronaut through osmosis.” 

Yukhei raises an eyebrow. “You do realize osmosis refers to the flow of water molecules through a semipermeable membrane?” In an accent that Donghyuck recognizes as Inigo Montoya-esque, Yukhei says, “I do not think it means what you think it does.”

Swallowing back a giggle, Donghyuck throws his wadded up napkin at Yukhei. “Now you’re just showing off, you fucking nerd.” 

Yukhei laughs and picks the napkin off the floor like a good samaritan, dropping it onto his empty plate. “Bad habit. I’m a science communicator, I can’t let stuff like that slide.” 

“I’m never gonna use big words around you again.” 

Before Yukhei can formulate a reply, the waitress is at their table again. “You two doing okay?” 

Yukhei aims that megawatt smile her way. “Yep, thanks!” 

“Do either of you want anything else to drink?” she asks, fluttering her eyelashes at Yukhei, who, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t notice a damn thing. He looks expectantly at Donghyuck, who struggles not to laugh. 

“Nope, I’m good. I have to drive home.” 

Yukhei nods. “Same.” He turns back to the waitress. “If we could get the check, that’d be great.” 

“Sure thing, honey.” She slides a look at Donghyuck. “Together or separate?” 

“Separate,” Donghyuck says before Yukhei can get a word in. The waitress nods and leaves. “Chill out, sugar-pie. It’s a first date,” he says, seeing Yukhei’s enormous pout. 

“Maybe… we could get ice cream or something after this? My treat.” Yukhei tugs on his earlobe, which Donghyuck now recognizes as a nervous tick. It only makes Yukhei that much more endearing. 

“I mean… if you want?” Something flutters in Donghyuck’s chest. It’s that sense of hope again, the same one he’d firmly squashed down earlier. But Yukhei smiles so sweetly, Donghyuck lets the feeling bloom.

  
  


🚀

  
  


“Wait wait  _ wait-- _ ” Donghyuck wheezes. “So you’re telling me that you put a freaking sticker where your  _ butthole _ is supposed to be, and then you--” He breaks off into giggles again. “And then you sit on the toilet thingie and there’s a  _ camera _ underneath--”

He has to bend over from laughter, and he holds out his mint chip cone for Yukhei to take so he grabs his aching stomach. “And you have to look at the monitor and practice  _ aiming your butt-- _ ” 

Yukhei grins from where he stands on the sidewalk beside Donghyuck, munching on a violently blue cotton candy cone. “It’s one of NASA’s deepest, darkest secrets. Can you imagine what would happen if you had bad aim in zero gravity?” 

“I can’t, I can’t--” Donghyuck rests his hands on his knees, weak with laughter. “That’s so terrifying and hilarious and I don’t even--” He wipes at the stray tears. “I don’t even know what the fucking say.” 

“These are the times when muscle memory is very important,” Yukhei says, demolishing the rest of the cone. Donghyuck struggles to stand up straight, his sides aching. Yukhei smiles wickedly. “Do you want to know what happens to the pee?”

Despite his body’s protests, Donghyuck giggles. “Do I?”

“Let’s just say… today’s coffee is tomorrow’s coffee.” 

“ _ Nooooo _ , oh my god. No no no.” 

“Don’t even get me started on Apollo bags.” 

Donghyuck gapes. “I think I can probably figure out what those are but I’m afraid to know if I’m right so please don’t tell me.” Because Yukhei is eyeing Donghyuck’s ice cream longingly, Donghyuck grabs it and resumes walking. “Reason number five thousand why I never want to go to space.” 

“You don’t want to go to space?” 

Donghyuck scoffs, licking melted ice cream from the side of the cone. “Absolutely not. Space is like the culmination of all of my greatest fears.”

Yukhei raises his eyebrows. “Like?” 

“Oh, you know, the usual. Claustrophobia, suffocation, isolation, the thought of being trapped permanently in the cold vacuum of space.” 

“On the ISS the only things you really have to worry about are fires, depressurization, and ammonia leaks.” 

Donghyuck looks at Yukhei blandly. “Oh, all my favorite things. You’ve really convinced me now. Let me just go turn in my application to NASA.” Yukhei just gives him an unrepentant grin. “But honestly, mad respect for doing it.” Donghyuck nudges Yukhei with his elbow. “Astronauts have got to be the most badass people in the entire world.” 

“We get a lot of psychological training as we go. You could pretty much die at any point, so you sort of have to come to terms with your own mortality.” 

The thought of it makes Donghyuck vaguely nauseous. “That just makes you guys even more metal. You basically look Death right in the eye and give it the middle finger.” Yukhei tilts his head back and laughs, and under the fluorescence of the street lamps, he looks so young, like any other young adult just enjoying a Friday night. It would be impossible to tell that this man had done more than most humans could ever dream of doing. 

“I can’t believe it’s almost midnight,” Yukhei says, checking that enormous watch of his. “Time really flew by.” 

“Jesus.” That had never happened to Donghyuck before. Most of the dates he’d been on had him checking his phone constantly, waiting for the night to be over. This time, with Yukhei, he finds himself wishing their time didn’t have to come to an end. He can’t even remember half the stuff they talked about, only that he never struggled for a new topic, never thought to glance at the time, or formulate an escape. There had only been Yukhei. It’s bizarre.

They slow to a stop at a crosswalk, and Donghyuck can see his parking structure across the street. His stomach sinks with the knowledge that the night is over. “So…” Yukhei stuffs his hands into his pockets. “Confirmed non-axe murderer?” 

Donghyuck tilts his head back and forth, pretending to think. “It would appear you’ve been too busy.” 

“You don’t know how relieved I am to hear that.” Yukhei shoots Donghyuck that lethal megawatt smile, and Donghyuck wonders how there could be any survivors in the aftermath of meeting this ridiculous man. “So… can I ask for your number now?” 

Donghyuck’s foolish heart flutters. “I guess you could.” He watches as Yukhei digs his phone out of his pocket. It has a protective case on it so big it looks more like a brick than an iPhone, and Donghyuck adds himself as a contact and sends himself a text. 

“I guess I’ll see you then?” Yukhei asks. 

Struggling for something coy and aloof, Donghyuck flutters his lashes. “Maybe you will.” 

Yukhei rocks back on his heels nervously. “Do we, like, hug or something? Is that too forward? I don’t know what the protocol is for this kind of thing.”

“Protocol,” Donghyuck snorts. “You really are a nerd.” To put them both out of their misery, Donghyuck leans forward and kisses Yukhei’s cheek. His skin is warm, and smells of subtle cologne and shampoo. The blush on Yukhei’s cheeks feels identical to the one Donghyuck knows is forming on his own face when he pulls away. “Good night, Yukhei.”

Dazed, Yukhei blinks at him. “Good night, Donghyuck.”

  
  


🚀

  
  


“Captain Lucas Wong, of the twenty-fourth astronaut class,” Jeno reads aloud from his laptop. Burrowed in one corner of the couch in Spongebob pajama bottoms and an oversized UT Houston hoodie, he squints at the screen. “A member of MENSA, Captain Wong graduated summa cum laude from UC San Diego with a double major in electrical engineering and geophysics at the  _ age of thirteen-- _ ”

Donghyuck pauses from his pacing back and forth to stare at Jeno. “What the fuck?” He turns to Renjun, who is watching him while sipping a mango-flavored White Claw. “What the  _ fuck? _ ” Renjun just shrugs, like this whole situation isn’t his fault. 

“He then went on to receive a PhD in geophysics at MIT at the age of seventeen-- holy shit-- during which he developed a program that predicts pyroclastic flows. Regions with active volcanoes use his software to detect potential threats and evacuate areas at risk during an eruption. Jesus christ.” 

Donghyuck resumes his pacing, chewing at his fingernails. He’s proud of himself for holding back his panic until he’d gotten home from the date to unleash it on his friends, who also have the misfortune of being his roommates. Yukhei had been so goofy and fun to be around, Donghyuck had forgotten who he really was. But now there’s nothing to hold back the anxiety and fear of inadequacy.

“After completing his graduate studies, he received his pilot’s license, and joined the Air Force as a test pilot. He also volunteered as a Search and Rescue reserve pilot for the local Coast Guard.” Jeno looks up from his reading. “Dude… he’s basically Tony Stark except he doesn’t use narcissism to mask deeply rooted childhood trauma. He’s like a real-life Avenger.” 

“Oh god, oh god,” Donghyuck mumbles. He’d asked a child prodigy about  _ space poop. _ Strike three. Donghyuck Lee is  _ out. _

“Captain Wong applied to the twenty-fourth astronaut class, where he was selected from among a record-breaking twenty thousand applicants. After completing his two-year training, he joined Commander Boah Kwon aboard the Soyuz, and, at the age of twenty-five, became the youngest astronaut in the history of human space flight. He spent six months on the International Space Station as a Mission Specialist, where he conducted a number of geological experiments, pending publication, and participated in three spacewalks.” 

Jeno takes off his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose. “My head hurts.” 

“You’re gonna wear a hole in the fucking carpet,” Renjun tells Donghyuck. 

He whips around and tries not to upend their salvaged coffee table. “You set me up. On a blind date. WITH AN ASTRONAUT!” 

“I don’t see a fucking problem? Was he a dick? No,” Renjun says, without waiting for Donghyuck to answer. “Why is this a big deal?”

“Junnie…” Jeno sighs. “This guy has his own Wikipedia page. It’s kind of a big deal.”

Assessing the risk, Donghyuck scoots towards Jeno and peers at the screen over his shoulder. It’s pulled up to Yukhei’s profile on the NASA website. Beside the biography is a picture of Yukhei in an enormous white flight suit, standing in front of the American flag with the helmet tucked under his arm and smiling cheerfully into the camera. Something twists in Donghyuck’s heart, a mix of longing and admiration and hysteria. 

“He’s hot,” Jeno says. 

Donghyuck can’t look away from the screen, still chewing on his thumbnail. “He’s hotter in person.”

“It says here he’s six feet tall. If I didn’t have a boyfriend, I’d climb him like a tree.” Jeno turns his head to Donghyuck. “You should do that as soon as possible.”

“That’s my cousin you’re talking about!” Renjun protests. 

“You’re the one that set us up,” Donghyuck points out. “So now you deal with the consequences, you jerk.” He turns back to the picture of Yukhei. Handsome is an understatement when it comes to Yukhei. Even in the goofy-looking jumpsuit. Or maybe it  _ is _ the jumpsuit that’s really doing it for Donghyuck. What the fuck has his life come to? “I probably shouldn’t go out with him again, though.” 

“Why the hell not?” Renjun asks, outraged. 

Jeno peers at Donghyuck curiously. “Didn’t you have a good time?” 

“Of course I did. That’s exactly  _ why _ I can’t go out with him again.” 

“God, make it make sense,” Renjun groans. Donghyuck resumes his pacing. 

“He’s too perfect. There has to be a catch. Why is he going out with me--”

Renjun throws another pillow. “Why are you so fucking worked up about this?” 

“He’s an  _ astronaut _ .”

“And you’re an illustrator, and Jeno’s in vet school, and I’m an accountant. Now that we’ve all gone over our careers, can we move on?” 

Donghyuck laughs derisively. “He went to fucking space. He has a PhD. He’s a  _ pilot. _ He’s probably saved countless lives. I teach middle-aged white couples how to paint flowers and sunsets.” 

“Oh, of course, that’s all you do, right? No need to mention all your commissions, your installations, or the fact that you literally use all your money to teach art to inner-city school kids. You think shooting yourself into outer space on a rocket or writing code is the only way to help people? You’re a fucking  _ case, _ Donghyuck.” 

Silence rings loud in the apartment. Donghyuck doesn’t dare breathe.

“You really wanna know why I set you guys up?” Renjun asks, voice rising, temper flashing in his eyes. “Because I was hanging out with Yukhei, and he said he wants to start dating. Here’s this super sweet guy, basically asking me to set him up. And since you’re always complaining about how you don’t have a boyfriend, I thought,  _ hey, _ here are two single people who I love and admire. Maybe they’ll like each other too.” He claps his hands together. “Boom, simple. That’s your answer.” 

Donghyuck stares at Renjun, mouth dry and heart filled with shame. “I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m insecure, and he’s amazing, and it scares me. I don’t feel like we’re on even footing.” 

“Hyuck.” Donghyuck glances at Jeno, who smiles gently. “You’re not a reflection of your parents’ disappointment.” Donghyuck feels rubbed raw. He doesn’t know how Jeno can always get to the heart of an issue so quickly. Maybe it’s because they’ve been over this a million times. “You can’t control how they feel about you. Just because they’re your parents, doesn’t mean they can’t be wrong. And just because they see you a certain way, doesn’t mean everyone else sees you the same way.” 

Tears burn at the back of Donghyuck’s eyes, and he can hardly swallow around the lump in his throat. How did this conversation get so out of hand? Why is he so unbalanced? Is this a byproduct of spending an evening with a sex god while he’s two years into his sexual moratorium? “I just-- I can’t--”

“Just because you don’t always appreciate yourself doesn’t mean other people don’t,” Renjun adds. “Do you really think that I’d set you up with a fucking astronaut if I didn’t think you guys might click?” 

Donghyuck sniffs, pulling at his t-shirt hem and hoping for some semblance of dignity. “I thought it might be a prank.” 

At that, Renjun grins. “I love Yukhei. He’s sensitive. If I was going to do something like that to you, I’d leave Yukhei out of it. I’d rot in hell for something like that.” 

Donghyuck huffs a laugh. “Somehow, that’s the most reassuring thing you’ve said.” He glances between his two friends. “Thanks, you guys. I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” 

“Boys make us crazy,” Jeno says simply, and reaches out to tug Donghyuck closer. He sits down between them and burrows into Jeno’s side. “It’s been a while since you went out. And things haven’t been easy for you. It’s okay to lose it a little. So--” Jeno rubs a soothing hand down Donghyuck’s arm. “Are you gonna go out with Dr. Delish?” 

Donghyuck laughs, face pressed to Jeno’s ribs. “God, he’s a doctor too, isn’t he? Captain Doctor Lucas Wong.” He yelps when Renjun digs a finger into his ribs. “Maybe. If he hasn’t come to his senses yet and run for the hills. It’s only been like… an hour. He hasn’t texted me or anything.” 

“Oh, he will,” Renjun says, ominous as always. And somehow, that, too, is reassuring. 

  
  


🚀

  
  


“Donghyuck. Donghyuck Donghyuck Donghyuck.” 

Donghyuck looks up from where he’s washing paint brushes at the sink. “What is it, Ally?” 

“I need help,” she whines. “The color isn’t coming out right.” 

Putting the half-clean brushes down, he turns off the tap and walks over to Ally’s table, wiping his wet hands on his jeans. “What color?” 

“The purple. I mixed the red and the blue and some white but it still doesn’t match.” Donghyuck crouches down to inspect the picture of a golden retriever puppy sticking out its head in a field of lilacs. He’d printed out the most colorful photographs he could find, and cut them messily in half, with instructions to tape down one half to paper, and paint the other to look like one seamless image. 

“I think what you need here is some brown,” Donghyuck decides. He turns to a pouting Ally. “How do we make brown?” 

“We have to mix the red and blue and yellow.” 

Donghyuck nods. “That’s right. Since you already used red and blue, I think it just needs a dot of yellow.” He takes Ally’s paintbrush, and dips the point carefully into a blob of yellow acrylic paint, before handing it back. “Try a little at a time. See if that works.” 

“‘Kay.” Leaving Ally to mix the paint, Donghyuck stands up, and takes a second to look over his students. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school he borrows this old unused classroom at the local high school, and he’s found a way to make it a little bit his own. He’d opened the windows to let in light and fresh air, and put up previous projects all over the walls. The 1975 plays from the speakers around the room, and his kids are bent over their own projects, speaking in low murmurs and so focused that no one but him notices when the door opens. 

Donghyuck turns towards the sound and jolts. “Yukhei--?”

“Uh, hi.” Donghyuck can’t comprehend how someone oozing with this much sex appeal can walk around tucking a sweater into khaki pants. And yet, Yukhei stands there, hands behind his back, just like that, wearing a sheepish smile and looking like some sexy professor fantasy come to life.  _ Dr. Delish, _ Jeno’s voice echoes in his brain. 

Donghyuck weaves between the desks to cross the room. “What are you doing here?” From up close, Yukhei looks immaculate, his hair tidily combed, the collars of his shirt a crisp white, standing out against the navy sweater. Donghyuck becomes increasingly aware of his own bedraggled state, and the fact that he hasn’t cut his hair in months. The outfit of the day is a worn cotton flannel and frayed, paint-stained jeans, and he wipes his damp palms on them now, wondering what the hell is going on. 

“Uh… well… I know we agreed to meet later tonight, but I thought I’d surprise you--”

Donghyuck raises his eyebrows. “How do you know I like surprises?”

Yukhei visibly cringes, and Donghyuck almost feels bad for him. “You’re right, I should have asked. I just got really excited. And impatient. Renjun gave me this address, and--” He takes his hands out from behind his back, and holds out a bouquet of sunflowers. “Please don’t be mad at me.” 

“I--” Donghyuck reaches out slowly and takes the bouquet, whatever annoyance and discomfort he’d been feeling fizzling out for a moment. The brown parchment paper crinkles in his hands as he holds the flowers to his chest. When was the last time anyone got him flowers? “They’re beautiful.” He only spares Yukhei a glance, before his gaze is once again transfixed on the blooms. Reverently, he strokes a finger over the bright yellow petals. “Did you know they’re my favorite?”

“Uh, I could lie and say I’m just that good but I cheated.” That sheepish smile has made itself a seemingly-permanent fixture on Yukhei’s face. “I asked Renjun about that too.” 

“I guess I’ll have to thank him then.” 

There’s a cough from behind him, and Donghyuck turns, only to see his entire class staring at Yukhei. Gavin, who is notorious for lacking boundaries, shoots his hand up. “Are you Donghyuck’s boyfriend?”

“ _ Gavin, _ “ Donghyuck chastises. “Where would you get that idea?”

“He got you flowers, didn’t he?” No nonsense, and straight to the point. That’s Gavin. Donghyuck feels the threat of a migraine behind his eyelids.

“We’re friends,” Yukhei says, glancing at Donghyuck. “For now.” A chorus of hoots and hollers follow, and Donghyuck makes a noise of disgust as he tugs Yukhei towards his desk at the front. 

“You.” He shoves Yukhei into the chair. “Stay here and don’t cause any more trouble.”

“Yes sir,” Yukhei says, with the most innocent of smiles. 

It’s hard to ignore his presence. The kids have completely lost their focus, glancing up at Yukhei and whispering theories as they pretend to work. Donghyuck can’t shake the feeling of being watched, but every time he looks up, Yukhei’s tapping away at his phone. By the time everyone has cleaned up, put the supplies away, and filtered out of the classroom, Donghyuck’s nerves are frayed. 

“I didn’t know you taught kids.” 

Donghyuck looks up from stacking the empty yogurt containers he uses for water. Yukhei had offered to help straighten up the room, but one glance from Donghyuck had him staying put. “I didn’t mention it.” Why is Yukhei here? Donghyuck had hoped to have some time to psych himself up for their second date. Time to prepare, time to not look like a complete slob. 

“Is it like an afterschool club?” 

“Something like that.” He takes the cups and squats down to put them in the cupboard underneath the sink. “The optimistic part of me wants to think of it as art therapy. Gives the kids an outlet, keeps them out of trouble. It’s a two-fer.” He straightens up and sighs, trying to work through the anxiety and irritation that’s bubbling up inside him. Yukhei is so disarmingly nice, Donghyuck doesn’t  _ want _ to be annoyed with him. “What are you doing here, Yukhei? I thought you’d pick me up later.” 

Yukhei points at himself. “Compulsively early. I told you it’s a bad habit. I’m trying to be more spontaneous these days.”

Donghyuck resists the urge to rub his temples. “I was working.” 

Yukhei winces. “I know. I realized that too late. But Renjun said it was okay, and--”

“Okay, okay--” Donghyuck waves his hands in the air. “Never listen to anything he says. Never. He’s what we call a professional shit-stirrer. His sole purpose in life is to annoy me.” 

“Are you annoyed with me?” Yukhei looks so pitiful, Donghyuck feels like he just kicked a puppy. 

“No, no, I’m just-- I’m gonna need some warning next time. Not to mention, Wednesday is gonna be like a fucking tribunal. These kids don’t know how to let things go.” 

“They love you, though.” 

Being reminded of it eases some of the irritation. The fact that Yukhei had noticed takes care of the rest. “I love them too.” 

“I can tell,” Yukhei says, getting to his feet. “Let me know when you’re ready to head out.” 

Donghyuck looks down at his clothes. “I look like a ragamuffin.” He tries not to pout as Yukhei approaches him. “I was gonna change into something nicer at home. This is why you need to let me know things ahead of time--” 

It gives him a jolt when Yukhei stops, just a foot away. He’s so damn tall, and despite the geeky mama’s boy outfit, the sweater does a lot to define his pectorals, his wide shoulders and strong arms. Donghyuck feels a swoon coming on, and shakes himself out of it. He’s going to need to get a reign on his spiralling lust before he embarrasses himself. 

He tries not to fidget as Yukhei rakes his gaze over Donghyuck, making him tingle from head to toe. “I think you look beautiful.” Donghyuck white-knuckles the sink and lists five reasons why it would be terrible to jump Yukhei right now. For someone whose two default states seem to be silly and shy, Yukhei seems to settle into sexy very easily. 

“We should--” He clears his throat. “We should get going, then.” Without waiting for Yukhei to respond, Donghyuck shuffles back to his desk, packing up his things and slinging his canvas bag across his shoulder. Yukhei hovers at Donghyuck’s side as he locks the classroom door, and leads them out a charcoal grey Toyota Tundra parked near the entrance. 

“So…” Donghyuck struggles for something to say once they’re settled in the car. Lady Gaga plays on low volume when Yukhei turns the key in the ignition. Donghyuck tucks his lips between his teeth and tries not to laugh. “How was your day?” 

“It was pretty good,” Yukhei says, pulling out of the lot and merging into traffic. When Donghyuck motions for him to elaborate, he laughs. “Sorry. Uhm, honestly I think it’s probably boring. I was just crunching numbers all day.” 

“Is that what astronauts do when they’re not in space?” 

“Depends, I guess.” Forehead wrinkling in concentration, Yukhei signals to turn onto the freeway. They’ve miraculously avoided rush hour traffic, and the lanes aren’t overcrowded. At this point, Donghyuck would step on it, but Yukhei stays at a solid sixty-five miles an hour. “We get a lot of data from satellites, rovers, the ISS. We have to analyze all that. Sometimes I work on new tech. That’s always fun. Sometimes we do outreach. There’s a lot. Every day is different. Today was a crunching numbers day.”

“That sounds truly horrifying.” Donghyuck shivers at the thought. 

“Depends on whether you like numbers or not.”

“Most don’t, I can assure you.” 

Yukhei is so damn cute when he’s offended. “That can’t be true.” 

“Oh, it is. But that’s also why most people can’t become astronauts. You know…” Donghyuck turns to observe Yukhei’s side profile. There’s something very attractive about how competent Yukhei looks behind the wheel of a car. Steady hands at 10 and 2, never taking his eyes off the road, save for the incremental glances at the rearview mirror. Donghyuck must be going crazy if this is the type of thing that does it for him. “I stalked you on the internet.” 

To Yukhei’s credit, he doesn’t so much deviate a mile from the legal speed limit. What he does do is spare Donghyuck a brief, bewildered glance. “Should I be worried?”

Donghyuck wiggles his eyebrows. “I don’t know. Should you?” He laughs at the pained sound Yukhei makes. “You lied when you said you aren’t a celebrity.”

“I’m really not.” 

“Liar. You have two million YouTube subscribers.”

Yukhei rolls his eyes. “People like science! I make videos about science.” 

“Did you know,” Donghyuck says imperiously, “that the most viewed video on your channel is one of you working out?” 

Yukhei turns on his blinkers entirely too far away from the exit lane and eeks up to the stoplight, looks both ways three times, and then makes a right turn. 

Fascinated, Donghyuck says, “You drive like a grandpa.”

Yukhei scoffs. “I  _ drive _ like a law-abiding citizen. And anyway, people are curious about how you exercise in space. Especially in zero gravity.” 

Donghyuck reaches out to pat Yukhei’s cheek. “Oh, you poor, poor thing. People watched it because you were shirtless.” 

“That’s--  _ No-- _ ” 

“It is. I read the comments. You’ve been dubbed the sexiest man in outer space.” 

Yukhei’s face is adorably flushed. “You’re making that up.” 

“I’m really not.” Donghyuck laughs. “Your abs are out of this world. Get it?” He pokes Yukhei’s ribs, makes him squirm. “Cuz you were in orbit.” 

“You’re the worst,” Yukhei groans. “I’m taking back the sunflowers.” 

“Like hell. They’re mine. And anyway, you wanna know what else I learned?” 

“I really don’t think I do.” 

“I  _ learned-- _ ” Donghyuck forges on, “that you’re also known as that one astronaut that snuck a sandwich into space in your underwear.” 

At that, Yukhei snorts. “That was a good one.” Because they’re stopped at a red light, he turns to grin at Donghyuck. “And it was underneath my shirt. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” 

“The look on everyone’s faces--” Remembering the video he saw, Donghyuck giggles. “And mission control was like  _ uh, Captain Wong, that is illegal _ .” 

“It’s not illegal! I mean, when you go to space you don’t really get to pack your own stuff, but there was nothing about sandwiches there. I checked.” 

Biting the inside of his cheek, Donghyuck says, “I think the part they had a problem with was the fact that you brought it on the rocket.”

“Well, they couldn’t get me,” Yukhei says, with pride clear in his voice. “I was in space.” 

“I hope it was a damn good sandwich.”

Yukhei wrinkles his nose. “Not really. It got all squashed from the spacesuit.”

“How tragic.” Amusement and affection sit heavy on Donghyuck’s chest, and it threatens to choke him, so he looks away. He turns his head to the window and watches the neon sign of the movie theater and marquee come into view. “Oh,  _ Return of the Jedi? _ Do you want me to cry?” 

Yukhei raises an eyebrow as he turns into the parking lot. “Why would you cry?” 

“Are you kidding me? It’s the end of the original trilogy. Luke sees Obi-wan and Yoda’s force ghosts and they smile back with pride! It’s a culmination of his growth! The Empire is defeated!” 

“Funny you didn’t mention Vader’s force ghost.” With a precision that makes something in Donghyuck’s stomach flutter, Yukhei reverse parks the truck between a Camry and a Lexus. 

“No offense to Hayden Christensen, but retconning Vader’s force ghost, like, a whole two decades later, is a travesty.” To make his point, Donghyuck undoes his seatbelt and hops out of the truck. 

“Couldn’t you argue that since Episode III is the last time Anakin is really truly a Jedi, it would make sense that his force ghost would manifest as how he looked before he turned to the Dark Side?” 

Donghyuck makes a disgusted noise at the back of his throat. “ _ No. _ ”

Yukhei raises his eyebrows, falling into stride with Donghyuck. “Because?” 

“Just because, okay? You don’t mess with a classic. It’s almost as bad as when they changed Han Solo shooting Greedo first. God.” 

“Well, doesn’t it give Han more justification if Greedo shot first?”   
  


“Are you  _ kidding _ me?” That sets Donghyuck off in a passionate defense, and he’s so wrapped up in his argument that he doesn’t notice Yukhei paying for the tickets, or for the popcorn, or, inexplicably, for a box of Milk Duds. 

“Wait,” Donghyuck says, when they’ve settled in their seats. The theater is mostly empty, and they have an entire row to themselves. He glares accusingly at Yukhei. “We were supposed to go Dutch.”

“Oh, were we?” Yukhei shoves a handful of popcorn into his mouth. 

“Yes! We haven’t established the terms of our relationship yet.”

“Hm.” Yukhei taps his chin. “Okay, here are your terms. Friday was an outing, where we were just getting to know each other, and figure out if we wanted to date for real. And now, we’re dating for real.”

Annoyance wars with amusement. “Oh, so you just decided that, all by yourself, then?”

“Yup.” Unrepentant, Yukhei grabs another handful of popcorn. “If it’s not satisfactory, you can suggest amendments.”

“Suggest amendm--”

“Shh, the movie is starting.” Yukhei turns his head to the screen as the lights dim, and shushes Donghyuck when he tries to speak. So he yanks the popcorn bucket out of Yukhei’s hands and fights to keep it out of his reach through the entire movie. 

And that’s that. 

  
  


🚀

  
  


“You know,” Yukhei says, shaking out the flannel blanket and laying it on the ground. “I stalked you on the internet too.” Donghyuck’s eyebrows shoot up. “Or, I tried, at least.”

“And why would you do that? I’m literally nobody.” He ignores Yukhei’s dirty look and hands him the still-warm pizza box and bag of soda so he can kneel down and adjust the wrinkled corners of the blanket. At ten at night on a weekday, the park Yukhei had chosen is entirely empty, save for a lone jogger. Donghyuck doesn’t know how he feels about that-- a moonlight picnic in the park, with no one to interrupt them.

“You said you were an artist.” Yukhei sits down and places the pizza between them. “I wanted to see your work. There was nothing, though.”

Donghyuck clicks his tongue, shaking his head. “Clearly you weren’t trying hard enough.” He smirks teasingly as he picks up a slice of glorious pepperoni pizza, for which they both seem to share a mutual affection. “Couldn’t hijack enough satellites?”

Yukhei scoffs. “I wasn’t going to hack a satellite.” He rolls his shoulders back. “Yet.”

Donghyuck chokes on a laugh, struggling to cover his mouth and not have chunks of food flying everywhere. He swallows his bite before he says, “Guess you figured you could just ask me, like a normal person.”

Yukhei grins from around an inhumanely large bite of pizza. “That was Plan C.”

Snorting, Donghyuck nudges Yukhei’s thigh with his foot. “Since you asked so nicely, I’ll answer your question.” It feels somewhat unsettling, having those big, dark eyes completely focused on him. Donghyuck can talk anyone’s ear off about a million things. Renjun would call it his fatal flaw. Donghyuck thinks of it as a talent. He could talk for all of Texas, if he put his mind to it. And somehow, never manage to reveal anything about himself. Vulnerability doesn’t sit well with Donghyuck. But sitting with Yukhei now, with just the crickets and freeway traffic for company, it doesn’t feel so bad. 

“You’re not the only one with many names, you know.” Donghyuck wipes his greasy fingers with a napkin, and grabs a ginger ale from the bag. “When I started posting art--“

“The sexy anime stuff,” Yukhei clarifies. 

Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “Yeah, the sexy anime stuff. I was pretty embarrassed about it. I didn’t want it getting back to anyone I knew that I was into that kind of thing. So I made a pseudonym.” Feeling encouraged by Yukhei’s interest, he digs out his phone and opens the Twitter app. He taps on his profile and hands it to Yukhei, who hurriedly stuffs nearly half a slice of pizza into his mouth to free up his hands. 

“Haechan,” Yukhei reads off of the profile. He tilts his head curiously. 

“It means ‘full sun’ in Korean. That’s why it’s my handle.” 

Yukhei’s smile is sweet and earnest. “It suits you.” He turns his attention back to the phone, and Donghyuck waits anxiously as he scrolls through the feed. Donghyuck doesn’t look at Yukhei, doesn’t want to see his reactions. It’s not that he’s a terrible artist, but he doesn’t know whether Yukhei will get it. So he picks at another slice of pizza.

Eventually, Yukhei looks up. “Donghyuck…” He glances back down at the screen. “This is incredible. Your art is wonderful.” A weight that Donghyuck hadn’t realised he was carrying lifts. 

“Thanks,” he says, taking his phone back. He doesn’t really know what to do, so he fiddles with the corner of the blanket and crunches on the last bit of crust.

“It’s amazing, really. It kind of reminds me of Studio Ghibli movies? It’s--“ Yukhei frowns, tilting his head in consideration, before snapping his fingers. “Whimsical. That’s the word I was looking for.”

Pleased, Donghyuck’s cheeks heat up. “That’s a very high compliment.”

“I think my favorite one that I saw was the four seasons in the fish bowls? Man--“ He shakes his head, picks up his third slice of pizza. “I don’t know how you come up with that stuff. Artists are so creative.”

Donghyuck gives Yukhei an odd look. “You’re a literal astronaut.”

Yukhei just shrugs. “When we go up on missions, there’s always a plan. And you have to stick to that plan as closely as you can. You only have to use creativity if there’s a totally left-field emergency. So you really hope you don’t have to be creative.” 

Donghyuck makes a hum of acknowledgement. “Was it scary, in space? When you knew everything could go wrong?”

Yukhei grabs his own soda and opens it, but doesn’t take a drink. “I think people sort of expect astronauts to be, because, I mean, it’s space, right?” Donghyuck nods. “But honestly? We spend years training, thousands and thousands of hours practicing for every possible scenario. When I was in space, it was, like, cool! I’m in space! And then I would just do my work. ‘Cuz at the end of the day, that’s what it is. It’s a job. We’re getting paid to do a job.”

“Hell of a work environment, though,” Donghyuck says, taking the last sip of his drink. 

Yukhei laughs. “You’re not wrong about that.”

Donghyuck pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his chin on them. “Your parents must have been scared shitless.” 

“ _ My _ parents? Scared?” Yukhei smiles with obvious amusement. “No way.”

“No?” Donghyuck frowns. “If my kid was in space I would be terrified until the moment they were on Earth again.”

“My parents aren’t really very… sentimental, let’s say. They saw me going to space as a culmination of hard work. If I didn’t come back in one piece--” Yukhei narrows his eyes, searching for the words. “It would be seen as a failure. Nothing more.”

“No offense, but that totally fucking sucks.”

Yukhei lets out a startled laugh and shakes his hands. “It’s nothing like that, seriously. My parents are just habitual overachievers. When we moved from Hong Kong, it was because they got faculty positions at Stanford. My mom’s a biochemist, and my dad’s an economist. They set pretty high standards.”

“No shit.” Donghyuck shoves Yukhei’s shoulder. “No wonder you’re such an egghead. It’s genetic.”

Yukhei grins, lets himself be swayed by Donghyuck’s half-hearted shove. “I’ve never heard it put quite like that. But yeah.” Yukhei glances down at his lap. “I don’t really know them that well, honestly. They were always busy. And I had tutors, since I couldn’t go to regular school. And then when I got into college and had to move to San Diego, I moved in with my Uncle Kun. And that was kind of the end of it.”

“How old were you when you moved?” 

“Eleven.”

“Jesus christ.”

Yukhei pauses in the middle of stretching out his legs, leaning his weight on his hands. “What?”

“You were-- you were just a kid.” Donghyuck doesn’t know where this sudden outrage is coming from, but all he can imagine is a small, lonely Yukhei, surrounded by books and strangers. The even, almost clinical way Yukhei talks about his parents makes it somehow worse, like he doesn’t quite realize it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Donghyuck’s relationship with his parents is strained on a good day, but he looks back on his childhood fondly. Back then, at least, he knew he was loved. He remembers his mother saying something once, about how a child can starve with a full plate. 

“Donghyuck,” Yukhei laughs. “It’s okay. When I moved, the thought of them coming with me didn’t occur to any of us. I can honestly say the two years I spent with Uncle Kun were probably the best of my life. We’d always go on cool trips during the weekends, he taught me how to scuba dive, let me have a pet lizard--“

“Gross--“

“His name was Steve and he lived a full life. But yeah. It was awesome. It was hard going to grad school, though, and leaving him. That definitely sucked. But when I got there, I was so busy, I didn’t really have time to think about it.”

Donghyuck narrows his eyes, outrage and pity for the boy Yukhei was warring with admiration for the man he is today. “For someone who spent his formative years doing nothing but studying, you’re remarkably well-adjusted.”

“Well, it only feels like that sometimes.” Laughing sheepishly, he ducks his head. “This is kinda deep for second-date conversation, isn’t it?”

Forcing himself to dispel the heaviness between them, Donghyuck smiles. “Well, it’s not on the protocol, if that’s what you’re wondering. But--“ He reaches out, takes Yukhei’s wrist. “I don’t mind. I like listening to you. Almost as much as I like listening to myself.”

Yukhei bursts out laughing, and it’s so ridiculous and infectious, Donghyuck has no choice but to grin. “What about you? What was it like growing up?”

He tries not to let his smile dim. “It was good. When I was little, we didn’t have much. My dad worked at 7/11 and my mom cleaned houses-- you know, the typical fresh-off-the-boat deal. They weren’t really around much either, but we always had food on the table. I have three younger siblings, so things were always chaotic. Arguments were started and resolved at the top of our lungs.” He finds himself feeling fond from the memory despite everything. 

“Eventually my parents saved up and opened up a restaurant. I don’t know if it’s the best, but I can confidently say that it's the  _ only _ place where you can get mandu within a fifty mile radius.”

At that, Yukhei tilts his head back and laughs. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“It was. There was never a boring moment.”

“Do you get to go home and see them often?” 

Something sour curdles in Donghyuck’s stomach, and he stares at his lap. “Ah… no. I haven’t been back since I moved out.” That had been seven years ago. 

Yukhei frowns. “Why? Wait-- that’s too personal, isn’t it? Sorry, forget I asked.” 

Because Yukhei is so adorably flustered, some of the knots in Donghyuck’s chest loosen. “I guess since you shared, I might as well share too.” Donghyuck shakes his head when Yukhei starts to protest. “Let’s just say… they weren’t happy when I decided to pursue art. They still aren’t. They think I’m a bad influence on my siblings. But that’s okay. I mean, can you imagine me in, like, medical school or something?” Just the thought of it makes Donghyuck laugh. “I’d go crazy.” 

“How did you deal with that? That must have been really hard.” Yukhei is staring at him with wide eyes, and Donghyuck is once again hit with the realization that talking with him is so simple, so easy. 

“It was really hard. But I made really good friends. Worked a lot of part-time jobs so I could, I don’t know, prove that I could survive without their help. And learned to let a lot of things go in one ear and out the other.” The moment Donghyuck says it, he realizes that it’s true. There are things that still eat at him, make him want to curl up and forget the world, but somehow, he’s managed to build a life for himself here. It’s something he’s proud of, and it’s something no one can take away. 

Because Yukhei doesn’t look entirely convinced by the answer, Donghyuck leans back on his hands and laughs. “I don’t want things to get depressing. Unlocking my tragic backstory on the second date is not an easy feat, sugar-pie.” 

“No, it’s--” Yukhei shakes his head. “I like listening to you too. I want to know everything about you--” The realization of what he said hits Yukhei fast, and he widens his eyes, even as his cheeks flush. “I mean, that’s, you know--” 

A laugh rolls out of Donghyuck before he can stop it. “You’re so damn cute. I could just gobble you up.” He snickers as Yukhei continues to redden. 

“I’m so embarrassed,” he says, pressing his palms to his eyes. 

“Don’t be,” Donghyuck says, leaning forward to tug Yukhei’s hands away from his face. “Do you know how many assholes I’ve dated who acted like they were hot shit? You’re so sweet. I like that about you.” 

“Well, if I keep putting my foot in my mouth, I hereby give you permission to say, ‘Yukhei, shut up’ because I really won’t take offense to that.” 

Donghyuck’s lips twitch. “Only if you do the same for me.” 

There’s a moment, then, that feels almost suspended in time. Donghyuck’s hand is still around Yukhei’s wrist, and their eyes are locked. No one’s ever looked at Donghyuck quite like how Yukhei is staring at him now, and it churns something up inside him. 

“Yukhei, I--”

They both jump a mile in the air when a loud beeping sound goes off. 

“ _ Jesus-- _ ” Donghyuck says, pressing a hand to his hammering heart. 

“Sorry sorry sorry.” It becomes apparent that the noise is coming from Yukhei’s enormous watch, and he presses a button on the side to silence it. He shoots Donghyuck a sheepish look. “I almost forgot I set an alarm.” 

Donghyuck raises an eyebrow. “Got somewhere else you need to be?” 

“No, no, I set it because I want to show you something.” Donghyuck frowns, watching Yukhei shuffle onto his back. He tugs at Donghyuck, imploring him to do the same. 

“Uh… what are we doing?” Donghyuck asks, lying down on the blanket. He turns his head to look at Yukhei, who is frowning at his watch. 

“And… Look!” 

“What?” Donghyuck stares up at the night sky, bewildered. “What am I seeing?” 

Yukhei grabs Donghyuck’s hand and lifts it up, using it to point at a small white streak moving across the sky. “That.” 

“What the hell is that?” he asks, squinting.

“The ISS.” 

Donghyuck turns his head to Yukhei again. “The ISS? You can see it from Earth?” 

“Of course you can.” Yukhei squeezes Donghyuck’s hand. “Just look. It only lasts a minute.” 

Donghyuck shifts his focus again to the sky, and watches the white dot, too big to be a star or a plane, leaves the trail of white. “Holy shit.” That’s all he can say for a while, eyes tracking the movement until it disappears beyond the horizon. Even then, he can’t quite look away from the sky. “You  _ lived _ there.” 

“Yeah…” There’s something wistful about the way Yukhei says it. “Sixteen sunrises and sunsets a day. There’s nothing quite like it.’ Donghyuck turns to him curiously. 

“Do you miss it?” 

Yukhei shifts his head to meet Donghyuck’s gaze. “All the time.” He’s still holding Donghyuck’s hand, his thumb tracing a pattern absently on his knuckles, and Donghyuck doesn’t want to move, doesn’t want to even  _ breathe, _ for fear that Yukhei might pull away. 

“Did it ever get lonely up there?” 

Yukhei purses his lips, considering the question. A cool breeze tickles their skin and rustles the leaves on the trees around them. “We can contact family any time we want up there. I called Uncle Kun every week. And there were five other crew members up there with me. So you’re not really isolated. But they warn us, you know? That it’s easy to feel alone after a while. And I thought, since I’ve been doing things that way my whole life, it won’t get to me.” Yukhei huffs out a laugh, like he can’t believe he was that stupid.

“I think it first hit me before I even went up.” Yukhei frowns now, deep in thought. “Before we get taken to the launch pad to, you know, board the rocket, they let us see our family one more time. My parents were there, Uncle Kun was there. It was nice to see them, say goodbye. But Boah-- Commander Kwon-- she was leaving behind her wife, their two kids. Astronauts don’t have a lot of time to be emotional about those things. We’re so focused on the mission, take off, all that stuff. But I could see how scared her family was. Excited, proud. But scared. And all they really wanted, more than anything else, was for her to come home to them. Her going away was going to leave a hole in them.” 

Donghyuck doesn’t know when the lump formed in his throat, but he struggles to swallow around it now. Because he thinks they both need it, he reaches out his free hand and brushes Yukhei’s hair back from his temple. 

“It’s like that for most of the astronauts, I think. Almost all of them are married, have kids. They were always leaving somebody behind. And then I realized, I wasn’t leaving anybody behind.” He lets out a shaky breath when Donghyuck rests his hand on his cheek. “No one was waiting for me to come home. I’d been so focused on this one goal, you know? Meet all the requirements to become an astronaut, become an astronaut, go to space. And while I was fixating on that one goal, I ignored everything else. Even things that were maybe more important.” 

“That must have been really hard.” Donghyuck's voice is just a whisper between them. “But you couldn’t have known any better.”

Yukhei shrugs. “The week after I got back from space was probably the worst of my life. I spent six months in zero G, and getting back to Earth, I was in so much pain. The first day, I couldn’t walk more than five feet without falling over. My legs swelled up, I had horrible headaches, I had to move really slowly or else I’d throw up. It’s not supposed to really be like that. It was the first time I ever needed to rely on anyone else.” 

“Are you okay now?” 

“Oh yeah.” Yukhei smiles. “I’m a NASA lab rat right now. They’re trying to figure out how long-haul flights affect the body, so I get poked and prodded all the time, and there aren’t any red flags so far, so--” He shrugs again. Donghyuck can’t wrap his mind around how quickly Yukhei dismisses all these things, and he has to remind himself that it’s not his place to question it. Not yet, anyway. 

“Thank god for small miracles, then.” 

“Not miracles,” Yukhei says. “Just science.” 

Donghyuck scoffs. “Alright, brainiac.” He feels Yukhei’s grin under his hand, and he brushes his thumb across Yukhei’s cheek. “So, you were saying? You had to rely on someone else?”

“Oh, yeah. Well. I guess, needing other people… it wasn’t so bad. It was actually kind of nice?” Yukhei wrinkles his nose. “I mean, obviously, it was their job. But I became really close with my flight surgeon, Johnny. He’s the one who suggested I try dating. So… here I am.” 

“Here you are,” Donghyuck murmurs. The moonlight and street lamps cast shadows across the Yukhei’s face. He looks like an angel, right then. Donghyuck doesn’t know if he’s ever known someone more beautiful, or complex. “Sounds like you have it all figured out, sugar pie.” 

Yukhei wrinkles his nose cutely. “What’s a sugar-pie?”

Donghyuck bats his eyes. “Why, it’s you, of course. Cuz you’re sweet as sugar.” At Yukhei’s snort, Donghyuck sighs. “Texas is really rubbing off on me. I sound like a middle-class Republican housewife.”

“I don’t really mind it,” Yukhei says, eyes full of mirth. 

Donghyuck’s lips twitch. “Well, I have plenty more where that came from.” His gaze drops down to Yukhei’s mouth. He doesn’t know when their faces got so close, or how their fingers got so tangled up. He scoots forward on the blanket, until their noses are almost brushing together. 

“Donghyuck…” It takes a lot of effort to tear his gaze away to look up into Yukhei’s dark eyes. “I should probably tell you, before we, uhm, move forward.” His Adam's apple bobs with a swallow. “I uhm. I’ve never… I’ve never done this before.” 

“Never dated?” 

“That too. But… I mean-- the physical side of it. Any of it.” Yukhei winces. “I mean, the intimacy, the--” Somewhere, amidst Yukhei’s floundering, something clicks in Donghyuck’s brain. Hurriedly, he sits up. 

“You’re a virgin?” He asks, bewildered. Yukhei scrambles to mirror Donghyuck, scowling. 

“You don’t have to say it like it’s a bad thing.” 

“I’m not, I just--” Donghyuck frowns, eyes roving over Yukhei’s face. “I just don’t get  _ how. _ ”

“I was kind of busy… I never really thought about it, and no one ever--”

Donghyuck jabs a finger into Yukhei’s chest. “If you say that no one ever propositioned you, I’ll eat my own fist.” 

Yukhei scoops a hand through his hair, frustrated. “I don’t know? I never noticed. It never mattered.” 

“Jesus Christ.” Donghyuck puts his head in his hands. “You’re an absolute  _ pinhead, _ Yukhei. Here I was, fully ready to jump your bones--”

“Wait, that’s  _ awesome-- _ ” 

Donghyuck shoots him a dirty look. “Shut  _ up. _ Have you ever even kissed someone before?” 

Yukhei pouts. “How can I answer the question if I’m supposed to shut up?” He shrinks back with a laugh when Donghyuck swats at him. “I haven’t. I know, it’s weird. I’m only telling you this because I don’t know what I’m doing. If I’m really bad at… stuff.. This is a warning.” 

Donghyuck narrows his eyes. “Are you or are you not a genius?” 

Yukhei balks. “I don’t know--”

“Yes you are,” Donghyuck says. “That would make you a pretty fast learner, wouldn’t it.”   
  


“A fast learner--?” Yukhei’s face lights up. “I guess it would. Are you going to teach me?” 

“Listen up, sugar pie.” Donghyuck scoots closer to Yukhei, until their legs press together. “Here’s the first lesson.” He cups Yukhei’s chin, and has the pleasure of watching color bloom on his cheeks again. His own heart is beating wildly against his chest, but he ignores it in favor of brushing a thumb across Yukhei’s wonderful mouth. 

“Close your eyes.” Yukhei does so without hesitation. “Relax your mouth. Don’t pucker.” Yukhei’s lips part, just slightly, and Donghyuck bites his own. “The trick to kissing well is just going with the flow.” He leans forward. “Follow my lead, and don’t overthink it.” 

He waits for a moment, notes how Yukhei’s forehead wrinkles with a frown. He doesn’t know why he said not to overthink things. He doubts Yukhei’s even capable of it. Since the next best thing is distraction, Donghyuck murmurs Yukhei’s name. 

“Yeah?” Every muscle in Yukhei’s body looks tense. 

“You have very kissable lips. I’ve been thinking about them all week.” And Donghyuck watches the smile bloom on that gorgeous face, and that’s when he leans forward and presses their mouths together. Yukhei makes a noise of surprise, hands grasping at Donghyuck’s knees to steady him. Donghyuck just cups Yukhei’s face and enjoys the taste of him. 

Moments later, Donghyuck pulls away, thumbs running up and down Yukhei’s jaw, waiting for him to open his eyes. When he does, Yukhei blinks, dazed. “Uh.” 

“How was that?” 

“P-pretty good.” Yukhei swallows. “Could you, maybe, do that again? I think-- I think I need another demonstration.” 

Feeling giddy, Donghyuck smiles. “My pleasure.” And kisses Yukhei again, none too gently this time. Because this time, he’s doing it for his own benefit as much as Yukhei’s, so he lets himself sink into it. Yukhei’s lips are pliant and warm, like his palms as he cups Donghyuck’s elbows and squeezes. Donghyuck can feel everything, from the sharp exhale Yukhei lets out from his nose, to the slow, sinking feeling of never wanting to let go. 

Their lips make an audible smacking sound when they break apart. Yukhei’s huge, hooded eyes seem to droop even more, and his lips are shiny with spit. He runs his tongue over them, like he might still be able to taste Donghyuck there. His shoulders heave with another shaky breath. 

Donghyuck doesn’t know what to say. His brain feels static-y and pleasantly empty. Yukhei is so gorgeous that a knot of lust tightens in the pit of Donghyuck’s stomach, and he has to remind himself to go slow, for both their sakes. 

“My turn,” Yukhei says, cupping Donghyuck’s face in his enormous hands. 

“There’ll be a quiz after-- Mph--” He doesn’t expect it, the heat. In hindsight, he should have, given that Yukhei Wong is just full of surprises. But it throws him off balance, to be kissed so suddenly, so passionately. Yukhei does learn fast, he thinks hysterically, and desperately tries to keep up as Yukhei devours his mouth. 

The moan slips out of Donghyuck’s mouth before he can stop it, and he only has a second to be mortified, before Yukhei answers it with a needy sound of his own. The hands around his face tighten, the sounds of their lips sliding together feel almost deafening. Donghyuck shakes so badly he digs his nails into Yukhei’s arms, desperate for a tether. “Tongue,” he gasps into Yukhei’s mouth. 

Obediently, Yukhei licks into him, thumbs tilting Donghyuck’s face up so that he couldn’t move even if he wanted to. The longer they kiss, the wilder it feels, and Donghyuck’s tenuous grip on his sanity just snaps. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Donghyuck rasps, climbing into Yukhei’s lap. He feels possessed, tugging Yukhei’s sweater out of his trousers, and breaking away only to pull it over his head. Yukhei pulls him back into another bruising kiss, and Donghyuck’s fingers shake as he pops the first few buttons of Yukhei’s shirt, desperate to feel the smooth, hard skin underneath. 

Frantically, like he might just die if they don’t get any closer, Donghyuck tangles his hands into Yukhei’s hair, tugging at the strands, scrapping blunt nails against Yukhei’s scalp, and drags a raw, ragged moan out of him. In a desperate bid to get closer, Donghyuck scoots so far forward on his knees that it topples both of them over. 

“Shit--” Donghyuck hisses, losing his breath as they both hit the ground, but Yukhei just locks his arms around Donghyuck, a casual display of strength that makes bees buzz in Donghyuck’s brain. He slots their mouths together again, happy with the way he can press the entire length of his body against Yukhei’s. But when he does, he feels something, rock hard against his thigh, and freezes. 

“No, don’t stop--” Yukhei whines, but cuts off when he realizes their predicament. “Oh god,” he groans, hands dropping limp at his sides. “Just shove me off the nearest cliff.” Donghyuck sits up a little, hands braced on Yukhei’s chest, and doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh. 

His entire body feels hot and tingly, shaking with adrenaline and need. Yukhei looks like some sort of sex god underneath him, hair mussed by Donghyuck’s own hands, shirt wrinkled and half-unbuttoned. He looks so delicious that Donghyuck could eat him up in quick greedy bites. And that’s exactly why they have to stop. 

“We went a little fast,” Donghyuck says, swallowing down a hysterical giggle. 

Yukhei lets out a huff, eyes glassy and unfocused. “Since you know me, you know I’ve never done anything slowly in my entire life.” 

Donghyuck snorts, leaning in to kiss Yukhei’s nose. “This is different, baby.” He feels Yukhei’s entire body go rigid at the pet name, and files that away for later. If he thinks about it now, he’ll probably go crazy. “Neither of us are ready. And besides--” He pulls away, smiles gently. “It’s only our second date. We have plenty of time.” 

“I don’t know why you have to be so reasonable,” Yukhei grumbles, and catches Donghyuck’s hand when it smacks his chest. Gently, sweetly, he brushes a kiss across Donghyuck’s knuckles, and has his whole body aching from want. “Can I just… hold you for a minute at least?” 

Donghyuck’s teeth ache, and he fights through the lightheadedness to nod. Careful not to work Yukhei up any more, Donghyuck lowers himself down and curls against Yukhei’s side. Under his hand, he can feel Yukhei’s heart beating, as fast and erratic as his own. It’s nice, knowing he’s not the only one feeling this way. He just doesn’t know what either of them are going to do about it. 

Neither of them say anything for a while, staring up at the sky. Eventually, Donghyuck musters up the energy to ask, “Are you okay?” 

“Hm? Yeah,” Yukhei says faintly. “Since a cold shower is out of the question right now, I’m thinking about multivariable calculus and parallel circuits.” 

Donghyuck muffles a snort into Yukhei’s shoulder. “It’s for the best.” Because Yukhei smells so good, he presses his face there. His eyes slip shut, and for a blissful moment, they are the only two people in the universe who exist. 

  
  



	2. part 2: yukhei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big thanks as always to dai and lisa for looking this over for me and keeping me motivated <333  
> i changed the title because i had been waffling over it for a while and i felt like joy's song really encompassed the feelings of this fic best ^^ please enjoy!

The problem with remembering everything, Yukhei thinks, is that he  _ remembers everything. _

He remembers how it felt to wire his first closed circuit, to flick the switch and have the tiny LED on his breadboard turn on and off, on and off. He remembers what it felt like to leave his parents to go to college, how much worse it was to leave Uncle Kun just a few years later, and being confused as to why. 

He remembers the first time he piloted a fighter jet, hands shaking from the thrill and the nerves, head rattling from getting a little too close to the sound barrier. He remembers the swoop in his stomach when he was inducted into the twenty-fourth astronaut class, and the need to just  _ vibrate _ with happiness when Commander Jung opened the hatch connecting the ISS and the Soyuz, and he and Boah just  _ floated _ through. 

He remembers, with stunning clarity, how Donghyuck looked the night of their first date, with bangs so long they brushed his cheekbones, laughter bright and infectious, eyes wide and full of mischief. He remembers those same eyes flashing with annoyance when he arrived unannounced for their second date, and just the thought of it now makes Yukhei cringe. 

But most importantly, he remembers how it felt when Donghyuck touched him, the soothing fingers on his temples, the heated tug at his hair, the solid weight of  _ Donghyuck _ in his arms, warm, soft, precious. Had anyone ever touched him like that? And because Yukhei remembers everything, he knows the answer to that is no. 

And, bizarrely, because he’s so busy remembering Donghyuck, he completely forgets where he is now, stumbles on the treadmill, and almost eats shit. 

“Whoa, easy there kid.” Johnny’s at his side in an instant, arms out near Yukhei, fully prepared to catch him if he falls. Luckily, Yukhei hasn’t needed that kind of assistance in a long time. “You okay?”

Since Yukhei has an enormous mask strapped to his face, all he can do is keep running and shoot Johnny a thumbs up. From his spot at the other side of the room, Dejun, Johnny’s intern, mouths a  _ you sure? _ and Yukhei just shrugs.

“Cool off anyway. You passed the six-mile mark a minute ago.” Sparing Yukhei a dubious look, Johnny grabs his clipboard and starts scribbling, alternating between taking notes and squinting at the respirometer measuring Yukhei’s vitals. 

Knowing the drill, Yukhei slowly starts decreasing the treadmill speed, until he’s at a brisk walking pace. His mask itches like crazy, but he knows better than to try and adjust it. Instead, he focuses on catching his breath and getting his heart rate back to resting. 

“Alright, kiddo, you’re done.” Johnny says eventually. Yukhei sighs in relief and steps off the treadmill. Dejun hurries over to him and helps remove the velcro straps that hold the mask in place, and with just minor struggle, and a strap caught in his ear, Yukhei takes his first breath of fresh air. 

Since he’s a seasoned veteran at this, he stays still, letting Dejun rip off the anodes and cathodes on his wrists, on his sternum, and only winces a little at the pain. Then he hops onto the examination table and goes through the routine with Johnny. 

“Deep breath in,” Johnny instructs, unwinding a stethoscope from around his neck, putting it into his ears. The metal is cool against Yukhei’s bare chest, and he does as he’s told, exhaling and inhaling. At his side, Dejun jots down notes, chewing at the top of his pen as he watches Johnny, wide-eyed and hawk-like. “And out.” 

They repeat that process again and again until Johnny is satisfied, at which point he removes the stethoscope from his ears and wraps it around his neck. “Alright, kid, spill.” 

Yukhei blinks at him. “What?” 

“What’s going on in that brain of yours?” Johnny pokes at Yukhei’s forehead. “You’re not focused.” 

“Oh, sorry.” At Johnny’s bland expression, Yukhei laughs, sheepish. “I uh… I started dating.” 

Both Johnny and Dejun’s eyebrows shoot up. 

“What?” Dejun asks. “Who? Is it someone from here? Are they young?” He wrinkles his nose. “Are they old?” 

“No, no,” Yukhei waves his hands in front of himself frantically. He hadn’t wanted to say anything to anyone about this, in case it jinxed everything. But last night, he’d gone on a spontaneous third date with Donghyuck, who texted him in a panic, saying that his favorite taco stand was set up in front of a nearby high school. They’d sat in the bed of Yukhei’s truck, shared a mountain of tacos al pastor, and got a sugar high off of several bottles of orange-flavored Jarritos. And then Donghyuck had kissed him in front of his apartment building, chaste and sweet, and had sent Yukhei’s body vibrating.

“His name is Donghyuck. He’s a friend of Renjun’s.” 

Johnny snaps his fingers. “Your cousin. Sort of.” Yukhei beams and nods. “Well, it seems like it’s going well if you’ve got your head in the clouds.” 

“It is-- I think. I mean--” Yukhei looks between Johnny and Dejun. “I don’t really have any previous data to compare it to--”

“Previous data,” Dejun snorts, dropping into the spinny chair beside the examination table. “What’s Donghyuck like? Does he know what you do?” 

“He’s great,” Yukhei says, and can’t help but grin, feeling dopey. He’s normally more eloquent than this, but  _ great  _ seems to do the job pretty well, in his mind.

“Cute,” Dejun coos. 

“He is. I mean-- he’s beautiful. And funny. He’s an artist, and he’s really good. He makes me laugh a lot.” 

“Laughing is good for the body and the mind,” Johnny says sagely from behind his computer screen. “And he’s okay with the whole astronaut thing?” 

Yukhei shrugs. “I think so? I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but sometimes he’s a bit… self-deprecating? It worries me. I don’t want him to feel, like, intimidated by my job. I’m just a normal person.” 

Dejun coughs, and Johnny peers at Yukhei over the rim of his horn-rimmed glasses. “Kid, there is nothing normal about you.” 

Yukhei shrinks into himself. It’s not the first time he’s felt like some sort of specimen on a microscope slide, but he hates it every time. “I’m not weird, though. Why can’t I just be a regular person?” 

“Some people aren’t meant to be regular, Yukhei.” Dejun pats his knee. “Some people have amazing gifts, and can do so much more than a normal person. That doesn’t make you weird. It just makes you special.”

“I think the important question is whether Donghyuck is special enough to deserve you,” Johnny adds. He narrows his eyes. “What do you think?” 

“He is special,” Yukhei says, without hesitation. 

“Now I’m curious what this Donghyuck is really like.” Dejun smiles sweetly, bringing some levity back to the conversation. “You should bring him to the Friends and Family thing next month.”

Yukhei tries to imagine Donghyuck here, where he works. “I think he’d really like that.” 

“Whatever you do, though, don’t introduce him to Dumb and Dumber.” Dejun is, naturally, referring to his friends YangYang Liu and Kunhang Wong, respectively. Yukhei himself holds the title of ‘Dumbest’, something he covets in an irrational way. Maybe it’s part of wanting to feel normal. Or maybe it isn’t normal to want to be an idiot. That would circle him right back to weird. Damn it. 

  
  


🚀

  
  


From:  **Gina Wong** < [ gwong@stanford.edu ](mailto:gwong@stanford.edu) >

To:  **Lucas Wong** < [ lucas.wong0125@gmail.com ](mailto:lucas.wong0125@gmail.com) >

Cc:  **Steven Wong** < [ steven.wong@stanford.edu ](mailto:steven.wong@stanford.edu) >

Subject: Schedule update

_ Yukhei, _

_ I will be at a conference in Germany for the next few weeks. Your father is taking a sabbatical for the summer to do some consultant work for the UN. You likely won’t be able to reach us over the phone, and we will only be responding to high-priority emails. I will notify you when we return to the States.  _

_ Best Regards, _

_ Gina Wong, PhD _

_ Associate Professor of Biochemistry _

_ Phone: (650) - 732 - 3897 _

_ Office: Beckman Center, Room B481C _

Sighing, Yukhei locks his phone and drops it on the pillow beside him. Why did he feel so compelled to read the email again? Is he just that much of a masochist? 

It wasn’t always this way. When he was younger, emails like this came as a near relief to him, though he hated himself for it. For a prolonged period of time, he wouldn’t have to update his parents on his progress. He could just… be, and that time was valuable to him. Ever since he got back from the ISS, with his minor epiphany, emails like this now grate on him. 

How long had it been since they’d called? Had he even seen them in person since the Soyuz launch? That was a year and a half ago. The worst part is that he doesn’t even miss them.

Though his bedroom is dark, Yukhei closes his eyes anyway. It won’t make a difference, whether he spends his time thinking about it or not. He’d done what he could-- sent a perfunctory, equally formal reply wishing them both a safe and productive trip-- and now it was time to put it out of his mind. 

Grabbing his phone again, Yukhei clicks through his email until he finds the most recent one from his uncle.

From:  **Kun Qian** < [ kun.qian.kun11@gmail.com ](mailto:kun.qian.kun11@gmail.com) >

To:  **Lucas Wong** < [ lucas.wong0125@gmail.com ](mailto:lucas.wong0125@gmail.com) >

Subject: call me!! + bella pics

  
  


_ Hey kiddo! How is everything going? You never told me about how your date went! Give me a call this weekend if you’re free, I wanna hear about it. Are you not telling me because it went badly? Or because it went well and you don’t want to jinx it? Hahaha. I know Sicheng would love to see your face so let’s FaceTime. We’re thinking about coming to visit soon-- maybe in the next couple months? Let me know if that works for you. I know you’re really busy but if you can make time for your old and frail uncle and his husband I would be eternally grateful. I miss you so much Xuxi! Lots of love! _

_ PS: I’ve attached pics of Bella for your viewing pleasure. She’s growing up so fast! I’m sending you the best out of the million I took in the last couple of days. Email attachment limits make it harder for me to spam you so Sicheng says it’s for the best.  _

_ PPS: How is the treehouse project going? Did you even start? Knowing you, you’ll finish it in a day. Maybe you can wrangle your friends into helping. How are they doing by the way? Haven’t burned down the Johnson Space Center, have you????  _

Scrolling through puppy pictures is more than enough to lift Yukhei’s spirits. Now that he has his own home, and a bit more free time, maybe he should consider adopting one himself. But he’s always so busy, he doesn’t want to neglect one. Maybe he should get a cat instead. They’re supposed to be more low-maintenance. Maybe he should get a cat  _ and _ a dog so that they can be friends and keep each other company. That could work. 

And reading his uncle’s email is a sharp reminder that Yukhei  _ is _ loved, and loved very much. He doesn’t need to look for love in places where it doesn’t exist. He learned that the hard way. It has him feeling lighter than he has all evening.

A  _ ping _ from his phone drags him out of his thoughts. 

**Donghyuck Lee ❤️:** are u free? wanna facetime for a minute? would like to see ur cute face

Awash with sudden excitement, Yukhei scrambles out of his tangle of sheets to turn on his bedside lamp. Then, realizing he’s mostly naked, he pulls the covers over his shoulders again, face half smashed into his pillow, and calls Donghyuck. 

_ “Well, don’t you look all cute and snuggly.”  _

Warmth spreads through Yukhei from head to toe. How is it that Donghyuck looks so pretty, even while he’s pixelated? “Thanks.” He just barely keeps from pressing his face into the pillow. 

_ “Are you really already in bed? It’s only--” _ Donghyuck squints at the screen.  _ “--Ten thirty. What?” _

“I have to be up early,” Yukhei says. “I have to go to the gym before work--”

Donghyuck makes a strangled noise.  _ “You are disgusting. You disgust me.”  _

A laugh rolls out of Yukhei. “Didn’t you just get back from work?” It’s Tuesday, which means it’s Paint Night. Donghyuck is in an oversized hoodie, curled up in what looks like a couch, eyes drooping.

Donghyuck nods.  _ “But the night is still young, Yukhei! Since Jeno is out on a date with Mark, Renjun and I are watching a movie.”  _

“Oh, is he there?” 

_ “He’s in the kitchen making snacks.”  _ Donghyuck brings his phone closer to his face and fake whispers,  _ “He bought this spinach artichoke dip from Costco. It’s like crack. I can’t stop eating it.”  _

Yukhei snickers. “It sounds healthy, though?” 

Donghyuck shakes his head, eyes shifting suspiciously.  _ “It’s not. It’s like ninety perent cream cheese and parmesan cheese and I don’t know what else. Very few vegetables to be seen. I’ve been blaming Mark for eating most of it.”  _

_ “He thinks I don’t know who ate all the dips and chips,” _ Renjun says, ducking into the frame holding a bowl of tortilla chips.  _ “Hi Xuxi.”  _

“Hi!” It’s odd, seeing Donghyuck and Renjun together. Logically, he knows they’re best friends, and closer with each other than either of them are with him. Even then, it feels like Yukhei’s world is getting smaller by the minute. 

_ “Xuxi? What’s Xuxi?” _ Donghyuck demands. 

“My name whn you pronounce it in Mandarin,” Yukhei explains. 

_ “That’s so adorable! Xuxi,” _ Donghyuck beams cutely.  _ “You have like a million titles and a million names. What do I even call you?” _

Yukhei coughs, embarrassed. “Yukhei is more manly.” 

_ “Yes, of course,”  _ Donghyuck says, with a roll of his eyes.  _ “You’re a manly man,”  _ Donghyuck coos. _ “Definitely not like a cute little blanket monster all snuggly wuggly--”  _

Renjun shoves his way into the frame again.  _ “Xuxi, tell me if you want me to kill this guy for you. I will do it without hesitation. I’ve been waiting for an excuse.”  _

_ “Mean,” _ Donghyuck says, pushing at Renjun’s head, which sets off a scuffle between them. Yukhei watches with fascination as the phone shakes, punctuated by yelling and an ominous  _ thump. _ Eventually, Donghyuck rights the phone, smiling, though he’s out of breath.  _ “Anyways, what were we talking about?”  _

“The dip that you definitely didn’t eat--”

_ “SHHHH--” _ Donghyuck hisses. 

_ “Everyone knows it was you, idiot. Xuxi--” _ Renjun pulls the phone away from Donghyuck’s grip.  _ “Our friend group is getting together for dinner on Friday night. You wanna come?”  _

_ “And subject himself to demons?”  _ Donghyuck protests from out of frame.

Yukhei blinks at the screen. He and Donghyuck have only been on three dates. “Uh… isn’t it a bit early for that?” 

Renjun clicks his tongue.  _ “Maybe if you were coming as Donghyuck’s date. But I’ve been meaning to introduce you to the group for a while. You should come.” _ He bares his teeth in a deadly smile.  _ “Don’t say no.”  _

“Uhm. Okay.” Yukhei doesn’t know how to say no to Renjun. He doubts anyone does. How did this innocuous phone call get so out of hand?

“Great! I’ll text you the details.” 

  
  


🚀

  
  


“No, no no,” YangYang says, setting down his Coke can with a resounding  _ thud. _ “Don’t you get it? This is big.” 

“ _ Big, _ ” Kunhang echoes, eyes enormous. 

Yukhei looks between the two of them. “But Renjun said it was just a casual thing. It’s not--”

YangYang shakes his head. “Dude, this is huge. Meeting the squad is, like, almost as important as meeting the parents.” 

“The  _ parents, _ ” Kunhang repeats. 

“If you don’t make a good impression on them, you can kiss a fourth date with Donghyuck goodbye.” 

“ _ Goodbye-- _ ow!” Kunhang pouts, rubbing his arm where YangYang punches him. “I’m just trying to help!” 

Yukhei puts his head in his hands. When he’d texted his friends for an emergency lunch meeting, this isn’t what he wanted. Now he’s sitting in the building cafeteria, fifteen dollars poorer because Kunhang wanted the tuna salad sandwich  _ and  _ the ham and swiss, and he’s getting nowhere. 

“What do I do? I don’t want to mess this up?” 

“First things first, wardrobe.” 

Yukhei looks down at his work clothes-- a blue denim dress shirt with  _ Johnson Space Center _ and  _ Lucas Wong _ embroidered on the left breast pocket, and his reliable khakis. “What’s wrong with my wardrobe?” 

YangYang winces. “Look, buddy. You’re luckier than most people. You’ve got this face to die for. And because of that, the whole sexy professor look kinda works for you. But it won’t work here.” 

Yukhei frowns. “Sexy professor look? What does that even mean?” 

“I like the sexy professor look,” Kunhang pipes up. “I mean. You look good in it. I mean, you would look good in anything. But you look nice like this, especially.” 

Yukhei smiles. “Thanks, Kunhang.” 

There’s a flush creeping across Kunhang’s cheeks, and he doesn’t know what that means. YangYang scoffs in disgust. “Dude.” 

Kunhang shrinks into himself. “It’s true! He’s good-looking!” He turns to Yukhei. “I mean that in a bro way. Like, as a bro. Cuz you’re my bro.” 

Yukhei nods, accepting this. YangYang puts his head in his hands. “You guys are the worst. Why do I hang out with you?” 

“Cuz I’m the only other intern your age in Critical Systems Engineering. And Yukhei is an astronaut,” Kunhang says, like that explains it all. Yukhei can only nod along. 

“I regret everything,” YangYang moans, then shakes his head like he’s trying to clear it. “But back to more pressing matters--“ He points an accusing finger at Yukhei. “Clearly, the fate of your relationship is in my hands. We need to make sure you don’t show up to this dinner looking like Dr. Doolittle.”

“I still don’t know what that means--“

“I’m talking about a complete overhaul,” YangYang plows forward. “Under no circumstances are you to wear khakis on Friday.”

The back of Yukhei’s neck feels hot. “Donghyuck likes the khakis.”

Kunhang leans towards YangYang. “Are we completely sure Donghyuck is a real person?” 

“Of course he’s a real person! Why wouldn’t he be a real person?” Yukhei doesn’t know whether to be outraged or to laugh. 

“Dude… we know you.” YangYang reaches over the linoleum table to pat Yukhei’s shoulder. “It’s totally okay if you built yourself a dream robot boyfriend.”

“It’s okay to be lonely sometimes,” Kunhang adds soberly. “We all want to love somebody.”

“Oh god,” Yukhei groans, dropping his head onto the table. “Why did I even ask?”

“Because deep down inside you know that if you show up in your normal clothes, someone’s going to try and shove you into a locker or something.” YangYang shakes Yukhei urgently. “It’s a warzone out there. There are no prisoners in the game of love, my friend.” 

“You’re both single,” Yukhei points out. 

“Irrelevant!” 

Dejun really was on the right track, Yukhei thinks. YangYang may be dumb, and Kunhang might be dumber, but he’s definitely the dumbest, for thinking his friends can help in this situation. But because he has no choice, he has to listen to them, and hopes that it won’t come back to bite him on Friday.

  
  


🚀

  
  


“Oh wow,” is the first thing Yukhei hears when the door to Donghyuck’s apartment opens. It isn’t a face he recognizes, so he guesses it must be the third roommate, Jeno. “You  _ are _ hotter in person.” 

“Uh--” The back of Yukhei’s neck prickles with heat. It’s odd how often he’s been told things like this in the last couple of weeks. He’s used to being complimented on his brain, and getting complimented on his face feels like an out-of-body experience. 

“Come in, come in,” Jeno says, reaching out to tug Yukhei in by the wrist. “I’m Jeno, though you probably already guessed that. Renjun’s in the shower. Donghyuck is working.” Helpless, Yukhei lets Jeno lead him through the apartment, given no time to take it in. “Do you want anything? Water? Soda?” 

“I’m okay,” Yukhei says, barely managing not to slam into Jeno when he stops. The door in front of them has stickers all over it, including ones made of gold glitter spelling out Donghyuck’s name. Jeno knocks on the door, then opens it without waiting for an answer. 

“Hyuck, Yukhei’s here.” 

“Hi hi. Sorry, five minutes.” 

Yukhei peers into the room, and sees the top of Donghyuck’s head peeking out from above two desktop monitors. 

“He’s working,” Jeno explains, wrinkling his nose. “Artistic temperament and all that jazz. You can wait with me in the living room--”

“He can come in,” Donghyuck says. “You, on the other hand--”

“Rude,” Jeno says easily. He smiles at Yukhei and gives him an encouraging pat on the arm. “Go ahead. He won’t bite. Maybe.” 

And then he’s gone, and Yukhei is left to cross the threshold of Donghyuck’s room carefully. It’s a fairly small room, but it had been arranged to make the most out of the space. There’s a bed tucked into one corner, with fairy lights at the head, framing rows of Polaroids. The remaining walls are covered in shelves, filled with art supplies, knick knacks, and more photos. In the corner is a large, thriving monstera plant, and on the windowsill are several potted money plants, their vines long and trailing on the ground.

But the most striking part, in Yukhei’s opinion, is the workstation. There are two enormous monitors daisy-chained together, and wirelessly connected to an iPad being used as a display tablet. Donghyuck sits in what can only be described as a gamer chair, hunched over the tablet now, looking between that and the monitor screens. Yukhei takes the opportunity to take Donghyuck in, to accept the quick, almost painful clutch in his belly that comes every time he’s near. 

He looks so cozy, in a comically-oversized purple tie-dye shirt and baggy sweatpants, his caramel hair tousled and falling into his eyes-- though he doesn’t seem to notice it at all, with how focused he is on his work. Yukhei finds himself fisting his hands in his pockets so he doesn’t reach out to touch. 

He’s not sure how much time goes by, with him staring at Donghyuck, but eventually, he hears a sigh, and the resounding  _ clack _ of the stylus being put down. 

“God, everything hurts,” Donghyuck groans, squeezing his eyes shut as slumps back into his chair, stretching his arms out and tilting his head back to roll out the kinks. His shirt rides up in the process, revealing just a sliver of skin, but it’s enough to make Yukhei’s mouth water. When Donghyuck opens his eyes again, he looks right at Yukhei, and blinks in surprise. 

“How long have you been standing there?” Donghyuck asks. 

Yukhei shrugs. “No clue.” 

“You could have sat down,” Donghyuck scolds, but reaches his arm out, and Yukhei has to restrain himself from sprinting the several feet between them. Yukhei takes Donghyuck’s hand, warm and soft, and feels some of the tension leave him. A warm weight settles in his chest, spreading even more when Donghyuck smiles up at him. “Hey, you.” 

Yukhei doesn’t know what to do. He always knows what to do. He knows everything about anything. Except this, apparently. He wants to kiss Donghyuck. He wants to bury his face in Donghyuck’s neck and see if he smells the same as in Yukhei’s memory. “Hi,” he says, instead of acting on any of the million desperate and embarrassing impulses flitting through his mind. 

Donghyuck tilts his head back, eyes roving up and down Yukhei’s body like he’s just noticing something new and strange. “Look at you,” he says. “You look different.” 

Donghyuck’s gaze feels like a brand on Yukhei’s skin. He ducks his head, tugging at the hem of the graphic shirt YangYang made him buy. He’s also wearing skinny jeans, a worn denim color with rips at the knees in what Kunhang had described as  _ strategic, _ which makes no sense whatsoever. The leather jacket from his Air Force days and the battered red Converse feel like safety blankets, but somehow, miraculously, pull everything together. He looks his age, according to the Law of YangYang. It’s a strange feeling. 

“Is it okay?” Yukhei shifts his weight on his feet. 

Donghyuck’s lips twitch up. “You look great. It’s not your usual, though.” He raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t go shopping for this, did you?” 

“What?” Yukhei coughs, tugs at his ear. “Of course not. That’s ridiculous.” Donghyuck snorts, and Yukhei caves. “Only a little. YangYang said if I dressed normally I wouldn’t get my head dunked in a toilet.” 

Donghyuck’s eyebrows shoot up. “By who?” 

“I don’t know? Your friends?” Now that he says it out loud, it sounds extremely stupid. It only takes one look at Donghyuck to know he’s thinking the same thing.

“Interesting. YangYang and I will have to have some words.” 

Yukhei doesn’t know what that means, but he’s not sure he’d like it. “What were you working on?” he asks, desperately trying to change the subject. “I didn’t disturb you, did I?”

“Cute,” Donghyuck says with a smile. “And no, you didn’t. I was just notified that my Apple Pen is at five percent, which is a sign from the universe to stop for the day.” He swivels his chair back to his monitors. “I’m working on a commission for a client. A present for her girlfriend, who really likes whales, I’m told.” 

Yukhei scoots closer and leans over Donghyuck’s shoulder to look at the screens. On one monitor is the image from the tablet, a blend of rough lines that only vaguely resemble a blue whale under the sea, and what could be a mermaid-- though it still isn’t entirely clear. The other screen holds a composite of stock images of whales, the ocean, and mermaid tails. 

“I finished the rough sketch, so tomorrow I’m gonna send it to my client and see what needs to be fixed. If I get the green light, I’ll do the lineart, so it won’t look like a hot mess like it does right now. And then I’ll do the coloring,” Donghyuck explains. 

“What are all those pictures for?” Yukhei asks, pointing at the stock images. 

“Those are for reference. You can’t-- or shouldn’t-- draw without them, unless you’re like a genius or something. If I tried to draw anything without refs it’d look like a five-year-old drew it.” Because the thought of it seems to amuse Donghyuck, Yukhei smiles. 

“Is this Photoshop?” 

“Fuck Adobe,” Donghyuck says, with feeling. At Yukhei’s alarm, he grins. “It’s all just a scam. I’m using Clip Studio Paint. It totally slaps.”

Yukhei turns his head and blinks at Donghyuck. “I beg your pardon?” 

Donghyuck snorts out a laugh. “It means it’s awesome, grandpa.” 

Yukhei can feel the back of his neck starting to flush again. “Ah. Right.” 

“Cute cute cute,” Donghyuck says, pinching Yukhei’s cheek. “The gaps in your pop culture knowledge are so fascinating.” It only serves to make him more embarrassed. “Speaking of all this, though, I wanna show you something.” 

Grateful for the change of topic, Yukhei says, “What is it?” 

“Gimme a sec, I need to pull up the file--” Donghyuck clicks through a folder on one of his monitors and opens a file. What he sees blows him away. 

“Is that--” Yukhe doesn’t know what to say. 

“You? Yes.” 

Yukhei stares at the drawing-- a cartoon rendering of himself in a blue NASA jumpsuit, holding a sandwich in one hand and a small model rocket in the other. It’s simultaneously the cutest and coolest thing he’s ever seen. 

“I was watching some of your YouTube videos-- and don’t judge me for internet-stalking you-- and I just thought that your channel logo was a little boring, and could use a change.” Donghyuck shifts his gaze between Yukhei and the screen, and it occurs to Yukhei that Donghyuck might be… nervous. “So? What do you think?” 

“I--” He doesn’t know if he has the right words to express how he’s feeling-- a mixture of warmth and giddiness, stuck right in his throat. 

“It’s okay if you hate it,” Donghyuck rambles. “It was just a little thing I did for fun, you don’t actually need to use it--”

“It’s great,” Yukhei says, putting a hand on Donghyuck’s arm. “It’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. You’re seriously talented, Donghyuck.” 

The tension in Donghyuck’s shoulders melts. “Of course I am. Whichever NASA intern made your old logo is shaking in their boots.” 

The laugh rolls out of Yukhei before he can help it, and Donghyuck’s own lips twitch, though he tries valiantly to keep a straight face. It’s addicting, this closeness, this sticky sweetness spreading through his body. Yukhei didn’t know it could be like this-- being romantically involved with someone. Everything takes on a completely new dimension, every emotion feels deeper and more important. He’s never been one to think too deeply about his emotions, but Donghyuck has him experiencing every second like it’s in slow motion. 

When did their faces get so close? Who made the first move? Yukhei doesn’t know. All he wants right now is to touch Donghyuck, to kiss that pretty, perfect mouth. But something holds him back. The relationship is too new, he doesn’t know what the boundaries are. He wants Donghyuck. That’s all he really knows for sure. Beautiful, funny, talented Donghyuck. 

“I should… probably get changed,” Donghyuck says, breaking the silence. He blinks rapidly and swallows, like he’d been lost in his own thoughts. He reaches out and cups Yukhei’s face, brushing this thumb over Yukhei’s cheekbone, before pulling away. 

“Renjun’s probably out of the shower. I’ll only be a minute,” Donghyuck says, sliding the built-in closet door open. He picks several articles of clothing seemingly at random. “Make yourself comfortable, okay? Don’t just stand around.” 

And Yukhei is left to his own devices, alone in Donghyuck’s room. Feeling a little shaky from the almost-kiss and bending down for too long, he drifts towards Donghyuck’s bed, intrigued by the strings of Polaroids. They’re all stuck to the wall at random, some in black and white, some in color. All of them are shots of who Yukhei assumes are his friends. They look happy, and normal, and for just a second, Yukhei wishes he had something like that. 

“You’ll meet pretty much everyone tonight.” 

Yukhei turns his head, and finds himself at a loss for words, yet again. He doesn’t know how Donghyuck can look so casually beautiful, how a sweatshirt and jeans can look like they’re straight off the runway. It makes him hyper-aware of his own clothes, and how out of his depth he is in them. Donghyuck makes the same style look as easy as breathing. 

“I--“ 

Donghyuck frowns. “You okay?” He crosses the room to sit at his desk, and starts pulling things out of the drawers underneath, including a small mirror. 

“Fine,” Yukhei croaks. “What are you doing?” 

Donghyuck throws him a smirk over his shoulder. “Some finishing touches.” And Yukhei watches with fascination as Donghyuck expertly swipes glittery eyeshadow across his eyelids, smudges eyeliner, and applies what he explains is highlighter to the apples of his cheeks and the tip of his nose. With a final application of a pink gloss, the end result has Donghyuck’s skin looking dewy, all his features more enhanced. 

With a smack of his lips, Donghyuck caps the lip gloss and turns fully to Yukhei. “What do you think?”

“I… think you look beautiful either way,” Yukhei says honestly. He likes the soft look of Donghyuck’s bare face, but he also likes the refined glamor of the makeup. It’s also entirely possible that Donghyuck could be wearing clown makeup and Yukhei would still think he was gorgeous. 

Donghyuck smiles, running his fingers through his hair. “That’s just the right thing to say.” Then he picks up his eyeliner pencil. “Want to try it?”

Alarmed, Yukhei sits up straighter. “Me? No thanks, I’d probably poke my eyes out.” 

Donghyuck snorts. “I’ll apply it for you, genius.” 

Yukhei considers his options. He could refuse the makeup, and avoid potentially looking silly. If Donghyuck  _ does _ do his makeup, that would involve Donghyuck standing very close, and touching him again. The choice is easy.

“I guess I’ll try it.” Since he’s already so far out of his comfort zone, it can’t get much worse. And the way Donghyuck just  _ beams _ makes it completely worth it. He gathers his things excitedly and brings them to the bed, stepping between Yukhei’s legs and wielding an eyeshadow palette like a sword. 

“Close your eyes,” Donghyuck commands, and Yukhei does so, trying not to let the nerves get the best of him. From this close, he can smell whatever scent Donghyuck put on, something warm and floral. He can feel the warmth of Donghyuck’s body, their thighs brushing when Donghyuck leans in close. The coolness of his fingers pressed against Yukhei’s face tempers it, grounding him. 

“You have the most ridiculous face,” Donghyuck murmurs, carefully lining Yukhei’s lash line. 

“Uhm. What?” 

Donghyuck grabs his chin. “Hold still.” 

“Sorry,” Yukhei says slowly, trying not to move a muscle on his face. 

“If you weren’t some sort of genius you could have been a model.” The idea of it is so ridiculous that Yukhei has to laugh, and Donghyuck scolds him again. “Seriously.” All the while, his fingers are gentle on Yukhei’s skin. “You have crazy eyebrows. I’d kill for eyebrows like that.” 

Whatever Donghyuck is using smells faintly of roses. It’s therapeutic, just sitting there, letting Donghyuck fuss over him. “Maybe after I retire I can try the modeling thing,” Yukhei murmurs. Donghyuck snorts. 

“If I was an astronaut, the only way they’d get me to retire is if I was dead.” 

“Fair.” And because he feels silly and happy, he grins, and gets scolded again. 

“Stop smiling! You can’t smile while I’m doing this, it’ll ruin the lines.” 

Yukhei laughs. “Telling me to stop smiling isn’t going to help me stop smiling.” 

“You’re an idiot,” Donghyuck says, but there’s no bite to it. Yukhei likes it, in a weird way. He’s been maintaining the illusion of perfection his whole life, maybe out of duty, maybe out of pride. He doesn’t know if it’s Donghyuck, or if it’s just him spending time with someone so completely separate from his work, but he finds himself relaxing in a way he’s never quite experienced before. It’s liberating, not having the pressure of perfection weighing on his shoulders. He can be silly and idiotic if he wants to be. 

“By the way--” 

“Hm?” 

“Don’t take anything my friends say seriously. They’re, uhm, protective.” 

Yukhei frowns before he remembers to keep him face neutral. “What do you need protecting from?” Donghyuck is quiet for a long time. Yukhei blinks his eyes open, and watches Donghyuck chew on his lip. “Donghyuck?”

“It’s not a big deal,” Donghyuck says quickly. “Just, I’ve dated a couple jerks in the past. And some of them didn’t like what I do for a living.” He tries to force a smile, but Yukhei has spent too much time memorizing Donghyuck’s face not to notice. “They might grill you on stuff. Just. Take it with a grain of salt. It’s not personal, okay? And if you want to leave, we can. No pressure.” 

“I’m sorry that happened,” Yukhei says. Donghyuck’s talent and skill are so blatantly obvious to him. It makes him inexplicably sad to imagine anyone shaming him for it. “No one has the right to judge you for doing what makes you happy.” 

Donghyuck tries for a smile again. “You’d think it’s common sense.” 

Yukhei hums in assent. “You’d think so. But there are a lot of stupid people in the world.” He wrinkles his nose. “Too many, actually.” That teases a laugh out of Donghyuck. “Are you hurting anyone?” 

Donghyuck frowns in confusion. “What?”

“With your art,” Yukhei clarifies. 

“No?” 

“You can pay your bills and buy food and clothes, right?” 

“Of course, but what--”

“Then does it really matter what you do? No one has the right to judge you for it.” 

Donghyuck’s lips twitch. “Thank you for that rousing speech.”

“If anyone is giving you a hard time, I’ll stab them with my sword.” 

Donghyuck’s eyebrows shoot up. “You have a sword?” 

“Well, no. But I can get one and then stab them with it.” As intended, Donghyuck laughs, bright and lovely. He cups Yukhei’s face and presses a soft kiss to his lips. 

“That’s very chivalrous of you. But I would prefer if you didn’t commit murder in my name.” 

“I would only stab them a little,” Yukhei mumbles. Donghyuck snorts and kisses him again. 

“That’s so reassuring. Now close your eyes.” Yukhei complies easily, hoping that whatever plagues Donghyuck’s mind is put to rest, even just for a little while. Dinner probably won’t be that bad. Right? 

  
  


🚀

  
  


Maybe he shouldn’t have been so optimistic. 

He should be thankful that the moment they get to their table, Donghyuck shuffles him into the corner of the long booth, with Renjun right across from him like a physical buffer. But everyone is staring at him regardless, some in curious fascination, which Yukhei is adept at handling, but others, notably one, is glaring. YangYang was right. This is a warzone. 

Renjun clears his throat. “Okay, introductions?” They’re arranged at a long booth, with two large pots built directly into the table. They sit four and four on either side, and Renjun points to the three on his side first. “Jeno, you met him already.” At the sound of his name, Jeno smiles encouragingly and shoots Yukhei a thumbs up. “That’s Mark, Jeno’s boyfriend.” Mark does a two-fingered salute. He looks friendly enough. It’s a direct contrast to the person sitting right beside him. 

“This is Jaemin.” So the glaring one has a name. “He’s my ex. We pretend to get along for the sake of group dynamics.” From beside Yukhei, Donghyuck snorts. “And next to Donghyuck is Jisung, and their boyfriend Chenle.” 

With seven pairs of expectant eyes on him, Yukhei musters up his best smile. “Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me join you guys tonight.” That’s a lie, he was forced under threat of injury by Renjun Huang. Out of the corner of his vision, he sees Donghyuck cover a smile with one hand, and pat his under the table with the other. 

“We didn’t exactly have a choice, did we?” Jaemin says, fiddling idly with his chopsticks and leveling Renjun with a look. 

“I will kill you,” Renjun promises. 

Jeno claps his hands and grins with force. “Anyways!”

“So Yukhei…” Chenle leans forward, placing his elbows on his elbows and tilting his head to look down the booth at Yukhei. “What do you do?” He coughs when Jisung elbows him. “Ow! What?” 

“We all know what he does, you stalked him on YouTube last night,” Jisung hisses. 

“So? I’m just trying to be polite.” 

“My dudes, your whispering game isn’t great right now,” Mark says, eyes wide. 

Yukhei feels like he should probably say something here, but he really doesn’t know what. The last time he’d spend time with people in this age group, he’d barely been a teenager himself. And there are so  _ many _ of them. 

Luckily, they’re interrupted by the waiter, who brings them cups of water and distributes the menus. 

“Order whatever you want, cutie,” Donghyuck says, winking so salaciously that Yukhei’s face burns, even though he knows Donghyuck is joking. He is joking, right? “It’s my treat.” 

“Oh my god,” Jaemin says, disgusted. 

“What did you do to him, man?” Mark asks. “Hyuck’s, like, the cheapest person in the group.” 

Yukhei looks to Donghyuck for any sign of insult, but he just shrugs. “It’s true. But I like Yukhei, and I’m considering it compensation for whatever emotional distress you guys put him through.” 

“Well, why can’t he pay? Isn’t he some crazy genius astronaut whatever?” Jaemin asks. “You can barely pay your bills and now you’re going all sugar daddy on us?” Yukhei tries his best not to wince. 

“Jaemin,” Renjun all but growls. 

“What? I’m allowed to ask! How much do astronauts get paid, anyway?” 

“Not enough,” Yukhei mutters. 

Chenle slams his hand down on the table, rattling all the cutlery. “Are you rich?”

“Chenle!” Jeno gasps.

“What? I’m rich. I’m allowed to ask that question.” 

“Uhm…” is all Yukhei can say. 

“Who wants sliced rib eye?” Donghyuck asks, loudly. “The sliced rib eye sounds lovely.” 

The table dissolves into chaos as they argue over what to order, how much of each thing to order, and how spicy the broth should be. 

“Sorry about that,” Donghyuck murmurs, the vinyl-covered menu held in front of their faces like a shield. “They’re literally insane.” 

Yukhei peers over the menu to watch Chenle pinch and pull at Jisung’s cheeks, trying to convince them to order clams, while Renjun reaches all the way to the end of the booth to smack Jaemin upside the head. The only two who seem to be calm amidst this are Mark and Jeno, who are reading the menu and jotting things down on the paper slip the waiter gave them. 

“They’re an interesting group,” Yukhei decides. “I’m trying not to get overwhelmed.” 

Donghyuck winces and clutches Yukhei’s arm. “Please don’t. Like I said, they’re just protective. It’s like a trial by fire thing. If they upset you, I promise I will delete them all from my life.” 

Yukhei’s lips twitch, and he bats his eyelashes. “You would do that for me?” 

Donghyuck glances back at the group, and watches Jisung accidentally drop their chopsticks and soup spoon on the ground, sending Chenle into a fit of cackles while Jisung looks on in horror. Donghyuck turns back to Yukhei. “Currently, you are my favorite person in the whole world.”

  
  


🚀

  
  


With the orders placed, and Jisung’s cutlery replaced by a harried-looking waitress, the table rounds in on Yukhei again. This time, he’s prepared. During the chaos of ordering, he’d decided to approach this the way he would approach any technical problem in his work: to understand the whole, you have to look at the individual pieces. Once you know what each piece does, it’s easy to guess what can happen when they connect in any configuration. 

“How did you all meet?” he asks. He needs to understand the pieces, and how they fit. 

“Renjun and I were roommates our freshman year,” Donghyuck says. “And Jeno was in the room next door but his roommate was always bringing people over to, you know, so we felt bad for him and let him stay in our room.” Donghyuck sighs and shakes his head.

“And we’ve been stuck together ever since,” Jeno says cheerily. “And I met Mark when I was volunteering at a rescue shelter. He was so stressed because he was applying to law schools.” He looks at Mark fondly and strokes the back of his head. “He would come by to pet the animals, and he just sort of… kept coming back.”

“Aha,” is Mark’s only addition to the story. 

“Jaemin and I met on Tinder a few years ago,” Renjun says, then drops his chin into his hands. “And now I do his taxes, so I can’t get rid of him.” Jaemin just rolls his eyes in response. 

“And I met Jisung and Chenle in Intro to Earth Science,” Donghyuck finishes. At Yukhei’s surprise, Donghyuck snorts. “It was a gen ed class.” 

“And he barely passed,” Chenle adds, a maniacal twinkle in his eyes. “So if you want to date someone who knows what tectonic plates actually are, you’ll want to look somewhere else--” He grunts when Jisung drives their elbow into his gut. 

Yukhei puts his hand on his chest. “You’re breaking my heart, Donghyuck.” 

“Hey! I had other priorities.” 

Before the table can devolve into chaos, a waitress comes by with a cart laden with kettles of broth, and plates of thinly sliced meat, chunks of vegetables, and uncooked rice noodles and ramen. It’s like a game of Tetris, fitting all the food on the table, amidst all the bowls and utensils and cups. Miraculously, everything manages to fit, and once the waitress is gone and the broth is heating, Renjun and Chenle take the helm as self-proclaimed hot pot experts, deciding the order in which everything will be cooked. 

“Noodles and seafood last,” Chenle says, leaving no room for argument. “Everything you add to the broth changes the flavor profile,” he explains to Yukhei, who only nods along and says nothing, despite being an avid consumer of hot pot himself. Donghyuck seems to realize this, and hides a smile with his hands. 

The process of cooking and eating takes up the group’s focus for the majority of the evening. Through listening, Yukhei learns that Jaemin is a kindergarten teacher, Chenle is a music production major, and Jisung is a dance major at UT Houston. Mark is in his last year of law school, studying for the bar, with an internship at a firm lined up as long as he passes. Everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, having been privy to every high and low of each other’s lives here. 

It makes Yukhei ache for that kind of belonging. He’s starting to carve something out for himself, particularly while becoming friends with YangYang and Kunhang, but their friendship isn’t this intimate yet. Donghyuck’s group feels more like family, of what Yukhei assumes a real family should be like--with the banter and arguments, all with an undercurrent of love, acceptance, and understanding. Though Jaemin scowls every time he looks in Yukhei’s direction, his expression melts into something tender and nurturing when he talks to Jisung and Chenle. Yukhei watches Mark stab at a floating pork meatball with single-minded determination, until Renjun silently grabs it and deposits it in Mark’s bowl. 

And somehow, everything and everyone seems to revolve around Donghyuck. Whether it’s a verbal lashing for a bratty comment, or the entire table erupting into laughter when Donghyuck says something particularly scathing, it seems like what pulls everyone together, and what tempers and balances the group, is Donghyuck. 

“You’re being pretty quiet,” Donghyuck says, drawing up long ramen noodles, which he then puts into Yukhei’s bowl. 

“Oh thanks,” he says, picking the noodles up with his own chopsticks and slurping them up. After swallowing, he says, “I’m just observing everything. Your friends are a lot.”

Donghyuck winces. “I know, I’m sorry.”

Yukhei shakes his head and smiles. “That’s nowhere near close to being a bad thing.” 

Donghyuck smiles warmly, pleased. “They’re crazy, but they’re mine.”

“You’re theirs too.” Yukhei wonders if Donghyuck knows how lucky he is, to experience that kind of belonging. 

“So, Yukhei,” Mark says, clearing his throat. “You know how to fly, right?” Yukhei nods, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “How hard is it to get your pilot’s license? Like, I already know it’s super expensive, but maybe someday…”

Yukhei shakes his head. “I got mine kind of in a rush, but if you do it over a longer period of time, it’s more doable and affordable.” He smiles encouragingly at Mark, who seems satisfied by the answer. 

“This is the first time I’m hearing about this?” Jeno says, eyes wide as he sets his chopsticks down to look at Mark. 

“I’m just saying, it would be cool to learn how to fly--“ Mark stutters. 

“And  _ who _ threw up twice when we went on that helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon? Babe, you cry every time there’s turbulence on a plane. Why would you want to put yourself through that voluntarily?”

“ _ Babe, _ ” Mark whines. “I’m just asking a question. Stop trying to make me look lame.”

“Oh ho ho,” Donghyuck laughs. “You take care of that well enough on your own, friendo.”

“I think if turbulence on a commercial flight bothers you, I’d be careful about learning how to fly. Smaller planes experience way more,” Yukhei says, trying to wipe the pitiful look off of Mark’s face. “If you want, one day, we can go out flying and you can see if you like it or not.” He smiles, crinkling his nose. “I’ll stock up on barf bags.”

“You have a  _ plane?” _ Chenle asks, eyes wide. He turns to Donghyuck. “Did you know your man has a plane?” 

Donghyuck puts his hands up, surprised in his own right. “This is the first I’m hearing about this.”

“So you  _ are _ rich!” Chenle says. 

Yukhei waves his hands frantically. Talking about money always made his stomach twist into knots. “I’m really not.” 

“But you have a plane,” Chenle presses. 

“I… saved up? It’s just a small one.”

“How much do astronauts make, anyway?” Renjun wonders. 

“If he can afford a plane, why can’t he pay for the meal?” Jaemin grumbles, shoveling rice into his mouth right after. 

Yukhei glances at Donghyuck for help, not knowing how to get a handle on the situation. 

“I’m putting in the Napa cabbage,” Donghyuck announces loudly, dumping the entire plate into the pot, splashing broth everywhere and making Renjun curse.

“So Yukhei, you were in the Air Force, right?” Jeno asks calmly, like the situation isn’t rapidly devolving. “That must have been interesting.”

“The military-industrial complex is super corrupt and a huge waste of taxpayer money,” Jaemin says. 

Yukhei levels him with a look. “You’re right.”

“Did you ever kill anyone?” 

The entire table’s attention shifts to Jisung, who has been mostly quiet the entire meal. Their eyes are huge and trained on Yukhei, and suddenly, everyone else is looking at Yukhei too, expectantly. 

“Guys, no, oh my gosh.” He suddenly needs water. Donghyuck seems to sense this and hands a cup to him wordlessly. “I was a test pilot. I wasn’t deployed anywhere.”

“What the hell does a test pilot even do?” Jaemin asks. 

“A lot of things. Mainly we fly different planes in a lot of conditions. Like… midair refueling, maneuverability, visibility during different parts of the day. And then the engineers make protocols for those parameters so that whoever ultimately flies those models can do so safely.” 

It’s silent for a minute as the group absorbs the answer. It’s Renjun who speaks up first. “Jaemin, you’re an ass.”

But instead of creating tension, it only seems to defuse it, as everyone starts chattering about a million different things at once, and the attention is no longer on Yukhei. His shoulders sag with a relieved sigh. 

“Yukhei.” There’s a warm hand on his thigh. Donghyuck looks the most apologetic he’s been all night. “I’m really sorry about that.”

Yukhei shakes his head. “You don’t have to keep apologizing.”

Donghyuck sighs, glancing around the table to make sure no one is paying attention to them, before grabbing the laminated alcohol menu from the table. He holds it up in front of their faces, a poor barrier between them and the rest of the group, so Yukhei has to lean in closer. He can’t find it in him to complain about that.

“Jaemin isn’t normally like this. He just…” Donghyuck bites his lip, hesitating. “The last time I dated a guy, it was Jaemin who set us up. He was like an old friend from college or something, and honestly, at this point, I don’t care enough to remember, but the point is that he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world, and Jaemin feels responsible. And he was super mad at Renjun when he set us up because he didn’t want history to repeat itself. He’s just protective.”

Yukhei puts his hand over Donghyuck’s and squeezes gently. “I’m sorry that happened. And I figured he was just being protective.”

Donghyuck chews on his bottom lip. “I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression of him or hate him or something. And I also don’t want you to think it’s personal.”

“I don’t take it personally.”

Donghyuck frowns. “You don’t?”

Yukhei shakes his head. “He doesn’t know me. How can anything he says be personal if he doesn’t know me?”

Donghyuck opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again. “I guess… you’re right.” He leans forward and bumps his nose against Yukhei’s. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

Yukhei can’t help but grin, a warm, giddy feeling blooming in his chest. Is it pathetic, to react this way to every casual show of affection? “I’m okay. Though I have to say, I don’t think I’ve been grilled like this since I interviewed at NASA.”

“Really?” Donghyuck snickers. He opens his mouth to say more, but stops when Jisung tugs on his sleeve. 

“You guys are being rude,” Jisung murmurs. “Mark thinks you guys are making out behind the menu.”

Donghyuck is quick to drop the menu down, clearing his throat loudly. He glances around the table, then grabs at a floating chunk of enoki mushroom, before stuffing it in his mouth. Yukhei tucks his lips between his teeth to hide the smile, and spoons more broth into his bowl. 

  
  


🚀

  
  


With dinner squared away, it’s a unanimous decision that boba is required to round out the evening. Yukhei insists on buying for everyone, and earns another glare from Jaemin, who orders the largest size and insists on so many additional toppings that there’s hardly enough room in the cup for the tea. Renjun groans in disgust, and grabs Jaemin by the hand to pull him between two buildings, undoubtedly to yell. 

Yukhei doesn’t care much about the bill. Mostly, he cares about the fact that his and Donghyuck’s hands keep brushing as they walk along the sidewalk. 

“Oh!” Chenle says suddenly, and points at a piano, set next to a fountain in the plaza they’ve been wandering. He turns to Donghyuck. “Let’s go! Please?” 

“Chenle,” Donghyuck scoffs, glancing nervously at Yukhei. “Not now.” 

“Oh come  _ on. _ You can show off your voice and amaze your new boyfriend.” Chenle wiggles his eyebrows. 

“He’s not my boyfriend yet,” Donghyuck mutters, eyes glued to the ground. It hits Yukhei, then, that it’s true. Had enough time passed so that he could ask? He really wishes there was a protocol for this sort of thing. Did Donghyuck even  _ want _ to be his boyfriend? 

“Come  _ on _ come on come on,” Chenle begs, already tugging Donghyuck in the direction of the piano. 

“He always gets what he wants,” Jisung says, quiet as a mouse beside Yukhei. They grab Chenle’s drink when it’s shoved unceremoniously into their hands. Chenle pulls Donghyuck’s drink out of his grip and hands it to Yukhei to hold, before bounding off. 

“He can’t resist,” Jeno says. He and Mark have been lagging behind, hands locked and swinging between them as they whisper to themselves. “They’re really good though.” 

Yukhei raises his eyebrows. “What are they gonna do?” 

Jeno tilts his chin towards the piano, where Donghyuck and Chenle have taken their seats. With a bit of nudging, they break out into a loud and lively rendition of Lizzo’s Better in Color, which Yukhei only recognizes because YangYang had forced him to listen to the whole album. 

With both Donghyuck and Chenle’s hands running over the keys, the music takes on a different dimension of sound, and their voices pair together well. Donghyuck transforms in that moment, eyes shining brightly as he sings, his voice bright and velvety smooth. It’s yet another side to him that Yukhei didn’t anticipate. 

Their performance attracts a small crowd, mostly curious shoppers pausing to watch. Donghyuck meets Yukhei’s gaze, and breaks out into a laugh in the middle of the lyrics he was singing. He scrunches his nose cutely, and Yukhei finds himself grinning widely, unable to look away. 

Without so much as a pause, the duo launch into another song, one Yukhei doesn’t recognize. Donghyuck’s voice rings clear and true, the warmth of it seeping under Yukhei’s skin. He only looks away when he feels someone step up beside him. 

“Chenle’s a piano prodigy,” Mark says, grinning at Yukhei. “Since Donghyuck’s the only other person in the group who plays, he always gets wrapped up in these things. He pretends he hates it but he doesn’t.” 

“You guys must be really close.” 

Mark nods. “We are. It’s kinda bizarre how we all met but it’s good.” He looks up at Yukhei. “You’re pretty cool, Yukhei. If you and Donghyuck-- you know-- that would be pretty--”

“Cool?” Yukhei fills in, grinning. Mark laughs and nudges him with an elbow. “It’s still probably early, but I like him a lot. Is it too early to say that?” 

“Nah, dude. It’s chill. Hyuck’s a great guy. He’ll get on your nerves for sure, but he’s great. He has a lot of love to, like, give, you know? So I just hope you’re good to him.” When Mark fixes his gaze on Yukhei this time, he looks more serious than he has all evening. “He deserves it. And you seem like you do too.” 

“Thanks,” is all Yukhei can think to say. In his observations tonight, he’d realized several things. Maybe because he was the oldest, or maybe because he was just unintentionally awkward, Mark seemed to get picked on the most. Interestingly, whenever there was a major decision to be made, everyone seemed to subconsciously look to him for guidance. He was the one who placed the orders and split the tab. He was the tie breaker when a fight broke out about where to go after dinner. Hearing all this from Mark now, Yukhei feels like he’s unofficially getting the group’s blessing. 

“I’m really gonna take you up on the flying thing, though. That’d be so cool, man.” 

“I’d like that a lot.” 

Content that he’d said his piece, Mark wanders off towards Jeno, who has been fussing over Jisung all this time. When Mark approaches, both Jeno and Jisung look at Yukhei, and Jeno gives him a sweet, encouraging smile. Yukhei sighs in relief. 

“What did you think?” Donghyuck says later, running up to Yukhei with his cheeks flushed. He’s flapping his hands around, ostensibly drying the hand sanitizer Jeno had squeezed into his palms. He looks so pretty in that moment, under the fairy lights wrapped around the potted palms, and Yukhei is speechless for a moment. 

“I think,” he says slowly, holding Donghyuck’s drink out, “that you’re a man of many talents.” 

Donghyuck snickers, takes a sip. “It’s just for fun.” 

Yukhei shrugs. “Either way, I’m impressed.” Then, softer, “Your voice is stunning.”

“Oh, uh--” Donghyuck coughs and chews on his straw. “Thanks.” 

“Hey guys,” Jeno says, walking up to them, with Mark, Jisung, and Chenle in his wake. “Mark and I are gonna head out.” 

“Got a lot of studying to do,” Mark says. 

“And I--” Jeno trails a finger down Mark’s cheek. “--am going to help him study.” 

“ _ Babe, _ ” Mark whines, face flaring red. 

Jeno just grins and winks. “It was really nice meeting you, Yukhei.” 

And because Chenle and Jisung had gotten a ride from them, they head out as well, citing final projects and evaluations. Soon, Yukhei and Donghyuck are left alone. Except--

“Where are Renjun and Jaemin?” 

Donghyuck frowns, glancing around. “I could have sworn…” He grabs Yukhei’s hand and tugs him back the way they came. They peer into every dark corner, until Donghyuck screeches to a halt and Yukhei almost slams right into him. “Oh my god,” he snickers. 

Yukhei looks down at Donghyuck in confusion, before his eyes trail in the direction that Donghyuck is pointing. And sees Jaemin and Renjun kissing like their lives depend on it. “Wow. Oh wow.” Yukhei turns on his heel. “We shouldn’t be looking. That’s a private moment.” 

Donghyuck cackles. “This is too good. It’s just too perfect.” 

“Didn’t they break up?” Yukhei really did not need the visual of his cousin forcing his tongue down someone else’s throat. “Why are they doing this?” 

“Dude, they’re totally in love with each other. I don’t know what goes on in their heads, and quite frankly--” Donghyuck shivers dramatically, “--I don’t really want to, but it was really just a matter of time.” 

“Do relationships have to be that complicated?” Yukhei wonders. 

Donghyuck turns to look up at him. “Not necessarily. Some are, but you can’t really help it.” 

Yukhei sighs, rubbing his temples. “What do we do now? Do we just leave them here?” 

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll find their own way back.” Donghyuck’s eyes go hooded, and Yukhei’s heart leaps with sudden adrenaline. “As for us… you could drive me back.” His voice takes on that warm drawl that turns Yukhei’s knees to jelly, and makes it worse by pressing the gentlest of kisses to Yukhei’s jaw. “I think you deserve a reward for tonight. We could sit in your car and make out.” His voice has taken on that warm drawl again, settling like whiskey in Yukhei’s gut. “How does that sound, sweetheart?” 

Yukhei doesn’t quite wheeze, but it’s a near thing. “That sounds great.” 

  
  


🚀

  
  


And that’s how they end up here, in Yukhei’s truck, with his seat pulled all the way back so Donghyuck can sit in his lap (holy shit). Yukhei thinks he might vibrate out of his own body with how much adrenaline is coursing through it, letting Donghyuck hold him in place and kiss him however he wants. 

It had started out innocently enough-- slow, chaste, enough to have Yukhei slipping and sliding into an almost meditative state. And then Donghyuck had climbed over the console and sat there, right in Yukhei’s lap, like some fallen angel, and asked, “Is this okay?” 

Hell yeah, it’s okay. It’s fucking fantastic, actually. 

The leather jacket had come off first, in a mad scramble that had Donghyuck leaning back enough to wrestle it free, and setting off the car horn in the process. They’d stared at each other with wide, bewildered eyes, until they couldn’t back the laughter, and Donghyuck had leaned in to press giggles into Yukhei’s neck. 

And now Yukhei is here, with Donghyuck’s tongue licking into his mouth, tasting of taro milk tea, and his fingers tangled in Yukhei’s hair, slowly driving him insane. Yukhei feels helpless, gripping at Donghyuck’s hips and trying desperately to keep up, even as his heart thumps violently against his ribs. 

This is more intense than the last (and first) time Donghyuck was in his lap. Everything feels hotter, more urgent. There’s something in the recesses of Yukhei’s mind, scrabbling to get out, get free, but he doesn’t know what, and he doesn’t know how. It’s hardly his fault that he’s rock hard in his jeans, and he feels better about it when he realizes Donghyuck isn’t far behind. 

Yukhei moans shakily when Donghyuck drags his teeth over Yukhei’s bottom lip, pulling at it until it gets close to drawing blood. Then Donghyuck is ducking his head, pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses along his neck, right to the back of Yukhei’s ear where he realizes, with a lust-filled jolt, that he is extremely sensitive. 

“ _ Fuck, _ ” he hisses, his hips jumping of his own accord, his painfully hard length dragging against Donghyuck’s thigh. He gasps on another moan, breathless with how good that felt, and has to stop himself from mindlessly bucking up again. “S-sorry.”

Donghyuck pulls away from Yukhei’s neck to stare at him. There’s a beautiful flush on Donghyuck’s cheeks that spreads across his nose. His lips are cherry-red and spit-slick, and only makes the desire pulse more urgently in Yukhei’s veins. “Yukhei, you have to tell me what you want.”

Yukhei frowns. What he wants? Besides to act on the sudden, bizarre desire to consume Donghyuck whole? “Baby,” Donghyuck murmurs, to get him to focus, but the endearment only makes Yukhei’s dick twitch. 

“I want--“ Yukhei’s tongue feels like lead in his mouth. He can hardly recognize his own voice, with how gravely it’s become. “I want to touch you,” he admits, the words pulled out from the deepest recesses of his mind. 

Donghyuck tilts his head, puzzled. “You can.”

“No I mean--“ A fresh wave of embarrassed heat courses through Yukhei, making beads of sweat break out at his temples. “I always want to touch you.” He swallows thickly, flexes his fingers until they dig into the meat of Donghyuck’s hips. “Everywhere, all the time.”

Maybe he’s just imagining things, but Donghyuck’s bottom lip wavers, almost imperceptibly. And then he’s being kissed again, so deeply, that he nearly loses focus again, swept up in the taste of Donghyuck’s mouth, the warmth and weight of him pressed close. 

“You can,” Donghyuck mumbles against Yukhei’s mouth, so close that he can taste the words on his tongue. “Anytime. Anywhere. You don’t have to hold back.”

And whatever tenuous grip Yukhei had on his restraint, completely snaps. Groaning loudly, Yukhei wraps his arms more firmly around Donghyuck, his hands slipping under his shirt to grab at the warm, smooth skin underneath. Donghyuck lets out a shaky moan in surprise, hands coming to wind around Yukhei’s neck until they’re pressed as close as they can be. 

Yukhei feels mindless, bucking his hips up to grind against Donghyuck’s ass as he grinds feverishly down, dragging his tongue and teeth down the honey-sweet column of Donghyuck’s neck. He bites and sucks to his heart’s content, distantly aware that he might leave a mark there, for the world to see. 

“ _ Fuck, _ ” Donghyuck hisses, one hand cupped at the nape of Yukhei’s neck to hold him in place at his throat, the other sneaking between their bodies to drag down Yukhei’s chest. When he hooks his fingers into the hem of Yukhei’s jeans, Yukhei bites down so hard he yelps and thrashes. 

“Babe,” Donghyuck pants, tugging at Yukhei’s hair. “Yukhei.” It takes all of Yukhei’s willpower to pull away and look at Donghyuck. He blinks, desperately trying to focus, but his brain has reverted to its most primitive state, unable to think beyond  _ Donghyuck  _ and  _ want. _

“Listen to me. Whenever you want to stop, you just save to say so, okay?” 

The words hardly make any sense to Yukhei. Why would he want to stop when everything feels so good? He nods anyway, eyes focusing in on the other side of Donghyuc’s pretty neck, but all his thoughts jolt to a stop when Donghyuck works to open the buckle of his belt. 

Yukhei glances down at Donghyuck’s fingers, pulling the belt apart.  _ Oh.  _ So that’s what’s happening. Slowly, like he’s trying not to spook Yukhei, Donghyuck flicks open the button of his jeans, and then works at the zipper. Yukhei’s hips twitch as Donghyuck’s fingers brush against his straining length, now only covered by the thin cotton of his briefs. 

“Can I?” Donghyuck asks, and Yukhei can only nod mutely, watching with a mix of fascination, terror, and embarrassment, as Donghyuck pulls his cock free. A groan of relief is pulled out of him involuntarily, the air warm against his skin is just too much. 

“Oh boy,” Donghyuck says, then huffs out a laugh. 

Yukhei’s face flames. “W-what?”

“I just--“ Donghyuck brushes the back of his knuckles from the base of Yukhei’s cock, all the way to the tip, where he’s leaking precum like there’s no tomorrow. “I mean, I figured you'd be big but I just--“ Yukhei glances up just in time to see Donghyuck smirk. He gasps when Donghyuck’s fingers, warm and dry, wrap around his length. “Now that I’m looking at it properly, I wonder how it’s going to fit inside me.”

Yukhei whimpers. He honest-to-god whimpers. It would be humiliating if he wasn’t already so far gone.

“Look--“ Donghyuck coos. “My fingers can’t even fit all the way around it.” Yukhei glances down at Donghyuck’s beautiful, delicate fingers, wrapped around his girth, and his stomach turns entirely to knots. The final nail in the coffin comes when Donghyuck leans in to whisper, “How am I gonna fit it in my mouth?”

“ _ Sh-shit-- _ “ Yukhei groans. 

“Do you think it’ll fit, baby?” Donghyuck murmurs, pressing a wet, filthy kiss to the spot right behind Yukhei’s ear while he drags his hand up Yukhei’s length, torturously slow. 

“I don’t--I don’t know--“ Yukhei rasps out. His head slams back against the headrest when Donghyuck circles his thumb around his slit, the pleasure shooting down his spine like lightning. A vision comes, right then, clear as day, of Donghyuck, naked and splayed out on Yukhei’s bed, arching up and crying out as Yukhei splits him in half with his cock. In that moment, he can all but  _ feel _ Donghyuck around him, tight as a vice, and it drives him to the brink. 

“Hyuck--” Yukhei moans. “You too-- you--” The pain-pleasure of Donghyuck’s hand on him has all coherent thought leaving his mind. Yukhei prides himself on being articulate, but now, he’s been reduced to a mess of words and sounds, and all he can do is hope Donghyuck understands. 

His fingers scramble to Donghyuck’s jeans and unbuttons them quickly, fumbling with the zipper, before using all that’s left of his strength to pull the tight jeans down. Donghyuck curses as his own length bobs out, and hisses when Yukhei grabs it with a shaking, uncoordinated hand. In a moment of awareness, he realizes that they’re doing this in a parking lot, where anyone can walk by and see them. It fizzes out a moment later, becoming entirely unimportant.

“L-like this,” Donghyuck stutters, meeting Yukhei’s eyes with a filthy, lust-filled look, before he drags his tongue across his own palm, and sucks and licks at his fingers, before wrapping around both their lengths. 

“Fuck--” Yukhei groans, head slamming back against the headrest again, the sensation of their cocks rubbing together in Donghyuck’s vice-like grip becoming too much. It’s like the wind has been knocked out of him, and he’s helpless to watch as Donghyuck swipes precum off of both their tips and uses it as lubrication. 

He keeps it slow, excruciatingly slow, and Yukhei can feel his orgasm building at the pit of his stomach, urgent and almost painful. As if sensing this, Donghyuck takes Yukhei’s hand and sucks his fingers. Yukhei grunts in pleasure, watching Donghyuck’s cheeks hollow, eyes glinting with a promise that next time, it won’t be his fingers in his mouth. 

Satisfied with his work, Donghyuck pulls Yukhei’s out of his mouth and brings them to their lengths, and Yukhei takes over mindlessly, his fingers long enough to wrap more around the girth of both of them. He pumps them both quickly now, desperate for release, and pulls Donghyuck into him again. 

Donghyuck comes willingly, wrapping his arms around Yukhei’s neck and holding him tight while he licks into his mouth, tongue dragging along Yukhei’s teeth, feeding quick, hiccupy moans into Yukhei’s mouth. It all becomes too much-- the stifling heat of the car, the dampness at Yukhei’s temples and the back of his shirt, Donghyuck’s wet tongue, and the sticky friction from his hand. 

With an embarrassingly loud moan, Yukhei comes, subconsciously squeezing his hand, and that sends Donghyuck over the edge and into his own orgasm, gasping and gripping tight. Yukhei feels like he comes for ages, ropes of wet cum splattering all over his fingers and knuckles, mixing with Donghyuck’s own release. 

They stay like that for a long time-- foreheads pressed together, panting into each other’s mouths as they try desperately to get air back into their lungs. Donghyuck’s fingers are damp at the back of Yukhei’s neck, digging into the skin there when he pulls Yukhei in again for a filthy, wet kiss. 

Despite everything, Yukhei’s dick still twitches, breaking the kiss every few seconds to gasp for air, even though all he wants is to have his mouth all over Donghyuck. 

“ _ God, _ ” Donghyuck hisses, tilting his head back when Yukhei laps messily at his throat. “I did not want to make you come for the first time in your car.” 

“I liked it,” Yukhei mumbles against Donghyuck’s heated, feverish skin. He tastes milky sweet and just a little salty from the sweat. Yukhei wants more of it.

“What was I supposed to do, huh? When you were just sitting there, looking so damn cute?” 

Yukhei pulls away from Donghyuck’s neck to grin drunkenly. His whole body feels light and loose, like he could just float away at any moment. “Should I dress like this more often?” 

“No,” Donghyuck says. “Absolutely not.” Taking his clean hand, he trails a finger down the bridge of Yukhei’s nose, his Cupid’s bow, until it rests against his bottom lip. “This look is sexy, don’t get me wrong, but there’s just something about those khakis that get me all--” Donghyuck shivers, then smirks. Yukhei’s poor dick twitches again. 

“Do you have glasses?” Donghyuck asks. 

Yukhei blinks. His head still feels like it’s filled with molasses. “Yes? I normally wear contacts, though--”

Donghyuck’s answering grin is wicked and sends Yukhei’s heart racing. “Oh, the  _ fun _ we’re going to have.” And as if to punctuate his point, he brings Yukhei’s hand up and licks all the cum from his skin, the heated look in his eyes better than any porn Yukhei has ever seen. 

How did this become his life? 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [i made a playlist for this fic](https://open.spotify.com/user/njthz42oe7h7wshjcfq8y9t2h/playlist/6sSW4MLTyfJxikeT33XI2W?si=ibZmVQd0Qles1WT4fWedyA)!!!! if you do get to listen, id love to know what you think! i really enjoy reading your comments and reactions! also, it's nuts, but taeyeon's gravity lyrics are also like... DEAD ON for this fic ??? WILD
> 
> luhenyang are really dumb, dumber, and dumbest. it will be fun to write hyuck meeting them. what did you think of hyuck's squad? 
> 
> and yes! the chapter count has increased-- as i was writing i realized id need more chapters to fully write out what i had planned. i have to let the story ~breathe~ yaknow ???
> 
> you can find me on [twt](https://twitter.com/hyuckheis) as well !
> 
> on a more serious note:
> 
> [help yemen by watching this yt video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yaB1gHJnGc&list=WL&index=2&t=0s) (disable adblocker)
> 
> [BLM](https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/) protests are still happening all around the country, and they can still use our support
> 
> please make sure to wear masks and take care when you go out! stay safe!!! 

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know your thoughts!!!!!! have you listened to awaken the world yet? what's your favorite song and why? 
> 
> please consider donating to BLM through the links and resources in [this carrd](https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/). [the okra project](https://www.theokraproject.com/) specifically gets healthy meals to black trans women. if you can't donate, you can stream videos like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKo8OrBdLz8) that donate the ad revenue to the cause! 
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/hyuckheis)


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